New interim chair, where now for IrelandOffline?

DonegalMan

OK, here are my own thoughts on the future of IOFFL, it’s a bit long but hopefully it will help spur other people’s thoughts and ideas.

At this stage I am focusing on what I think IOFFL should be trying to do rather than the specifics of how it should be tackled.I think it is vital that we define the raison d’etre of the organization before we get into the detailed strategies we should adopt.

Is IOFFL still needed?
IOFFL’s fundamental objective is “Affordable Internet access for all”. Whilst a lot of progress has been made over the last 3 years, we are still a long way from achieving this in Ireland. A limited form of FRIACO has been achieved but Broadband, which nowadays is taken for granted practically everywhere elsewhere in the developed world, is only available to a minority of people in Ireland.

IOFFL has made a significant contribution IMHO in specific areas as listed below to the improvements that have been made but there is still a lot to be achieved in each of them.

I’ve split these into separate posts to keep them manageable and allow other people to respond to specific areas.

DonegalMan

Political

As David Long said “It must not be forgotten that as a the small group of individuals on the committee of Ireland Offline were granted access to decision makers in government departments to people with the responsibility of shaping Ireland’s telecommunications policy, and to the body empowered to regulate the Irish telecom’s market.”

It seems to me that this is an area where we have lost a lot of ground. Christian’s original motion to disband expressed a lot of frustration with the Government and the Department of Communications but it came across to me that a lot of this was specifically related to the issues of community networks and backhaul. With respect to the people who put the work into this, I think it is one specific area of Broadband availability and in retrospect, perhaps too much focus was placed on it. I certainly don’t see it as a legitimate reason to close up shop.

We should make a determined effort to regain the ground lost here. The Department people that David and I had exposure to in the early days are very dedicated to development of Broadband and they are now working under a Minister who has shown the desire and the courage to take on Eircom. I for one am not entirely happy with the way he is going about it but I think we must persuasively present our opinions rather than just moaning. (Q. When was the last time IOFFL met the Department?)

The same principle applies to Comreg. It is too easy – and counterproductive - to just slag them off in this forum. Whether we like it or not, these are the people with the responsibility and the power, if we are unhappy with things they are or are not doing, then we should be in there arguing these issues face-to-face with them. (Q. When was the last time we met Comreg?)

DonegalMan

Media

In the early days of IOFFL, the media showed very little interest in the issue of Internet access. While this has improved, however, that interest is still largely confined to a few technical journalists. (Q. Why have we tolerated the situation where Eircom have blatantly refused to appear on any radio shows with an IOFFL representative present?)

Why is there not a national outcry about what is currently going on? The government has already spent vast sums of money on installing fibre that is lying dead in the ground because Eircom won’t light it. And guess what? The government is spending even more money doing the same thing to try to bypass Eircom but it is likely to end up the same way – fibre lying dead in the ground.

I don’t think the people of Ireland in general or the media in particular have woken up the scandal of how Eircom are destroying the potential future of this country by holding up expansion of broadband and by allowing the national network to degenerate so badly that if action is not taken soon, the country may have to face the prospect of replacing large chunks, if not all of it

I used to accept the argument that it is uneconomic to expect Telco’s to roll out Broadband to rural areas. I was wrong, it’s a big lie. BT have decided to roll it out to ALL AREAS. They’re a commercial organization like Eircom, if it’s viable for them to do this in Northern Ireland, then it’s viable for Eircom in the South – they are refusing to do so purely for short term benefits to their investors.

I believe that highlighting this scandal should be a major objective for IOFFL.

DonegalMan

Technical

We have to deal with the technical areas but do it in such a way that we do not get buried in a level of detail that ends up just confusing non-technical people like government ministers and their civil servants.

To me the technical issues can broadly be categorized into 3 areas

• Failure to keep up with new technology
  The improvements to DSL that are taking place elsewhere in the world to improve both the reach from exchanges and the capacity.
  
• Alternative Forms of Access
  Things like the Group Data Schemes and the potential impact of new wireless technology.
  
• Issues Affecting Individual Users
  Things like the state of copper wire as illustrated in Paul’s photos, line splitters, the abysmal failure rate on line testing and the suspicion that Eircom are being less that co-operative in regard to other suppliers.

DonegalMan

Motivating the Membership

This again is an area where we have lost a lot of ground. The committee decided to distance itself from this forum but put nothing else in its place to involve the rank and file membership or get their views - this forum over the last while has seemed to become more and more technically orientated with relatively little exchanges of views on the broader issues.

I don't know if I missed something here but the last newsletter I got before Christian's email was 11 months ago - the minutes of last year's AGM!

We claim to have about 2 000 members but have we really? How many of them are still interested? That's why I suggested elsewhere that we circulate a questionnaire.

In the early days of IOFFL, despite the problems there was an excitement, a buzz about IOFFL among the membership at large. We must find ways of recapturing that if we are to survive.

Well - that's the "whats"" as I see them, ideas on the ""hows"" to follow later

Martin Harran

maxheadroom

Originally posted by DonegalMan
I believe that highlighting this scandal should be a major objective for IOFFL.

This brought something to mind that I've been thinking about for a while now - could IOFFL do something like this ?

I don't see why not. We'd need a dedicated team of probably around 15 or 20 volunteers, and either a seperate sub-forum or mailing list to co-ordinate it (I'd be infavour of the sub forum idea)

Anytime a piece appears in the media, it'd get posted by anyone to this forum. Then people on the press response team would send a rebuttal to the media outlet involved. We could have a predecided set of responses to the standard boilerplate that gets put out by eircom, comreg et. al. and each member of the group could formulate their own response around those points. When someone has sent a reply, they post a reply to the thread containing the article. If there's more than 3 replies to an article, we consider that article dealt with and nobody else sends a response to it.

The advantage lies in the fact that its something people can do without having to contribute a huge amount of time, it avoids "form letter syndrome" where people just bin identical letters without opening them or reading them. The disadvantage is that it might take a lot of effort to get set up, to get the standard response points written, and to pick the people on the media response team.

But, I thought I'd throw the idea out there and see if anyone agrees / has suggestions for improvement etc..

cgarvey

I too believe that there's more to be done. I'm not sure what I can offer, but when we come up with a more finite list of things to do, we'll all have a better idea of where/how we can help out.

In the meantime I have a couple of observations...
1) Congrats
Congrats Adam, and I hopeful that your energy will bring a new wave of enthusiasm. Congrats to the outgoing committee also, on their efforts.

2) Success Measurement
Is there a way to measure IoffL's success past and future? I ask because I have no idea of what IoffL has achieved to date. I read lots of praise here, but (and I only did a quick search) I can't find any posts along the lines of "Comreg took onboard our submission and have recommended that XYZ..." or "Dermot's new directive is as a result of our meeting".

I presume (but have no idea, or proof) that IoffL contributed to the greater scheme of things, but I can't agree with posts like "we brought about cheaper DSL" when there doesn't appear to be any evidence of that. To help this, we should have an Achievements summary web page where members and press can see just how good IoffL is. If IoffL don't have any measurable successes to date, then its something to think about in the future.

3) Transparency
While I'm not an active member, I did consider myself to be a member (until I realised I had to re-register myself on the IoffL website .. which I *know* I did already back near the start, when it was asked of us!), I have had little idea of any of IoffL's activities over the last while. I've seen posts here about a couple of Comreg submissions being made, but there's no definitive list or ability to determine all of the organisation's current activities. I think its important for members to see what's going on, without having to ask, and equally important, if not more, for the media or public to be able to see that this organisation is involved and active. This, I believe, is important so that journalists who want to weigh up the authority of an IoffL release can go and see that we submit to DCMNR and Comreg requests, we have a working group on XYZ, and demonstrate an active interest in ABC. If they don't have this information readily available, they can either ask others (and I don't think freelance journalism is very peer-friendly!), or they can ascertain that this is a half-assed self-proclaimed organisation.

4) Structure
If IoffL continues, its time to think about the structure a bit too. What constitutes a member, what is the organisation's constitution. Formal structures for the committee, and sub-committees/working groups. A proper legal entity (presumably just an association).

5) Public Awareness
Martin mentions this, and I agree with most of the other posts on this too.. however, the one big thing I think that would help here is a resource that members could draw from to help educate the masses. I think I speak for an awful lot of members (but could be wrong!) when I say that I know a bit about the various topics IoffL discuss, but there are some I know shimmy-all about. Having a resource pool with HOWTOs / FAQs / Beginner Guides would help a lot, so that when someone asks a question that I don't know about I can refer them to that, or get the answer myself there. I can help put some of that together, but would need help. "Ireland Offline's guide to GDS", "Internet access options for rural areas", "A comparison of Internet access technologies available in urban Ireland", etc. That would give members the backing they need when trying to convert the masses (or neighbours/relatives/friends, like it would be for most of us!).

Just some ideas & ramblings!

.cg

cgarvey

Originally posted by maxheadroom
Anytime a piece appears in the media, it'd get posted by anyone to this forum. Then people on the press response team would send a rebuttal to the media outlet involved.

Great idea. A dedicated sub forum would allow for very targetted conversations to help establish a rapid response.. E.g. eircom release some new brilliant technology and within a few hours we have a press release welcoming it (not likely) or pointing out that it is in fact only ISDN at the x-highest price in Europe.

But most important is to get the response out there quickly, on the website so that the media can get to it and see all our other responses, etc.

.cg

cgarvey

Originally posted by DonegalMan
Technical
To me the technical issues can broadly be categorized into 3 areas

Martin raises all good points, and clearly. I would just add one technical issue that i think should be given some attention: Access to Internet access.

What do rural people do for Internet access? 12Kbps is what I have to endure when I go back to my homeplace.. and that's only on a rare occasion (and I'm not alone).. often its faster / more stable on my mobile phone's 9.6Kbps.

What choices do urban customers have, I can only access DSL .. I should have access to more than one form of Internet Access. Granted I have access to a range of DSL products from different companies, but they are all fundamentally the same and priced around the one company's offering. Wireless isn't available to me (no LoS) or have of north of the Liffey. Cable is only available to a few places.

Short term lettings/rented accommodation have a very finite choice. 2 month rolling contracts are rare and incur a hefty additional expense (disconnection fee), and mounting external equipment rules out alternatives.

So while more of us do have access to DSL now, there is still a substantial amount of people who have no access to choice.

.cg

MarcusGarvey

• IOFFL should start using it's membership more I think.
  
• It should also not give in to Comreg and Eircom and the Government. The more you ignore us, the closer (and LOUDER) we'll get (to paraphrase Morrissey).
  
• Ioffl shouldn't just be noise makers, they/we should provide sensible solutions to the problems. The GDSS idea is one good solution but it should not be the only solution. Alternative last mile technologies should be explored and real life examples of them working should be presented to the Government and Comreg and to the membership.
  
• The woeful USO needs to be discussed with Comreg and the Government. We the people need to show how it is harmful to us and the future development of the country.
  
• Education. We need to educate ourselves, everyone we know, the press, Comreg, the Govt, the EU and the general public about how all the issues Ioffl campaigns for are important to all Irish people and if these issues are not tackled soon and sensible solutions created we may not have a proper working telecoms infrastructure by the end of the decade.
  

cgarvey

Agreed Marcus, and my call for a resource centre would help us educate ourselves better, and media/public. We'd be all singing from the same hymn sheet, and wouldn't need to make up stuff

.cg

ekehoe

Originally posted by maxheadroom
Then people on the press response team would send a rebuttal to the media outlet involved.

I'm totally down with this. I miss being the bigmouth that I used to be :-).

E

Wassabi

I am willing to help with the Athlone/Ballinasloe area.

Not for sure how a yank would go over, spouting about the deplorable state of telecom, but I do have some media contacts if thats of any use.

- Was

Gadgie

I am willing to put time and effort into helping IrelandOffline. Not sure exactly much time, but the shift I work gives me a few days off at the start of the week, so it should be more than a few hours a week anyway.

I don't know how much help I'll be, but if any of the committee members want to PM me we can discuss it further and see what we come up with.

damien

Originally posted by Wassabi
I am willing to help with the Athlone/Ballinasloe area.

Not for sure how a yank would go over, spouting about the deplorable state of telecom, but I do have some media contacts if thats of any use.

- Was

Any and all help is appreciated. As for being a yank, sure isn't wee Elana one, though we class her more Irish now with that sharp tongue of hers. She even says "begorrah" a lot.

Edit: I'm soo dead.

Wassabi

Competition is the key to everything. Any way we can spur more of it the better.

I still cant believe they have sectioned off the country between the two major cable companys and dont go into each others areas. I want cable modems so bad I can taste it.

- Was