[dns-wg] Re: dnsmon / .org

Daniel Karrenberg <daniel.karrenberg at ripe.net> writes:

Hi Daniel,

>> There may well be further examples of this sort of thing in the
>> other non-core activities of RIPE NCC. Why would anyone pay for a
>> place on my DNSSEC training course (if I was selling one) when NCC
>> is offering their course for free?
>
> Who is selling DNSSEC courses? The whole point of DISI is to kick-start

We do. 

I.e. not Autonomica, but Lars-Johan Liman, Patrik Fältström and myself
privately teach DNS courses on all levels since years back, including
a two day course on DNSSEC.

And, yes, we have had students actually cancel their seats at a
scheduled course because RIPE NCC staff came to Stockholm and taught
DNSSEC for free. 

While I can personally live with that (at least as long as you don't
turn up in Stockholm too often ;-) I do think it is a clear example of
the difficulties with your position of being effectively a monopoly
that wants to do the right thing for the Internet. 

Johan

PS. With the Autonomica hat on: we also do DNS monitoring, quite
similar to dnsmon, and for exactly the same reasons, i.e. to monitor
our various DNS services, i.root-servers.net being one of them. To
offset our costs for this we are offering this service on some sort of
cost recovery basis to interested parties like TLDs.

Obviously even a cheap service will never be able to compete with a
free one, especially since the hassle of the billing process will make
both parties walk away. And, yes, we are RIPE members, so just as in
the Nominum case this is our membership fees working against us. 

In the end this is all about education. Everyone needs to understand
that there is a cost associated with providing a service. If the
service is offered "for free" that is just a metaphor for "someone
else is paying for it".