Bill,
That's precisely the problem, that (per your own admission) you
invited a salesman to NANOG, and suggested that he approach some of
the Netflix folks with an unsolicited sales pitch, all without paying
a dime. As a seasoned attendee, you should realize that the standard
practice here is to *pay* to attend, or else follow up with the gents
from Netflix by e-mail or phone outside of the conference. You'll
note that the other salesmen attending NANOG 49 (from OSI Hardware,
Tata, Time Warner Cable, and Tinet, to name a few) had no problem
paying to play.
The respectful thing to do would have been to call or e-mail. Of
course, after your video taping of a past peering BOF, or your hosting
of a marketing intelligence event in Philly passed off as an impromptu
BOF, you've made it abundantly clear this is a community you have no
respect for, and that your interests are strictly commercial.
Given all the money you're making off this community's goodwill, I'd
think the forgotten $600 registration fee should be chump change to
the DrPeering enterprise. I'll even go lightly and not hound you for
the $5000 sponsorship opportunity in Philly this community afforded
you. :)
Drive Slow,
Paul Wall
On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 1:59 PM, William Norton bill.nor...@gmail.com wrote:
This is all very interesting, inasmuch as you invited salespeople to
crash NANOG49 (unpaid) for the purposes of pitching the sponsor.
Wow - the story gets propagated and more exaggerated by the minute. Thank
you Mr. Temkin, (Marketing, NANOG).
Here is what actually happened.
I had lunch with the CEO of MediaMelon - he said he wanted to meet Ken
Florance (NetFlix), a friend who I have lunch with periodically. I
mentioned that he would be at NANOG. The gentleman works in San Francisco
and stopped by the hotel at lunchtime, unfortunately on Tuesday and I
hadn't seen Ken but I did see his subordinate (Dave Temkin) - I made the
suggestion that maybe he could maybe grab lunch with Dave instead.
Next thing I know, I was scolded by Mr Temkin to the SC, the NANOG Marketing
group, and apparently through the rumor mill as evidenced by your inaccurate
portrayal of what actually happened. Here is the scolding:
I find it extremely inappropriate that you brought MediaMelon in
specifically to hunt for myself and Ken Florance at this meeting.
We are the meeting sponsor and we expect that vendors be respectful
of the commitments that we have to the community.
Further, if MediaMelon would like to sell their wares to NANOG
attendees such as Netflix, they should purchase either a meeting
pass, or, more appropriately, pay to sponsor like everyone else.
How could it possibly be fair for you to sneak Kumar from
MediaMelon in, but Network Hardware Resale, Citrix, and many others
need to pay $5,000 and up to get a moment of my time? If Kumar
wants to contact me outside of NANOG where I'm not cornered, he
certainly has many ways to do so. It's clear that the meeting was
engineered.
I suggest that you discuss this with Kumar and encourage him to
donate or sponsor NANOG or NewNOG. I could understand that he may
be unfamiliar with how this community works, but frankly I expected
better from you.
-David Temkin
(Marketing Working Group)
I replied to clarify what appeared to be a simple misunderstanding.
From: William Norton [bill.nor...@gmail.com]
Received: 6/15/10 6:33 PM
To: David Temkin [dtem...@netflix.com]
CC: steer...@nanog.org [steering@nanog.org]; nanog-marketing
[nanog-market...@nanog.org]
Subject: Re: Inappropriate vendor meeting
Please. Give me small break.
I did not sneak this gentleman in. He wanted to meet ken Florance. Not
being here I suggested he talk to you.
Geesh.
Bill
Which resulted in continued attack cc'ing the SC/Marketing folks:
Bill,
That's ridiculous, and I'll let the fact that you don't deny any of it speak
for itself.
I wish I could give you more credit, but after the commercialized federated
cdn bof, taping the last peering bof, and now this, it shows that you have
no respect for NANOG.
This overreaction seems strikingly similar to the Avi NANOG issue of a few
years back - one of the things that led up to the NANOG revolution in the
first place. Avi was chewed out by the Merit NANOG Chair for sitting in the
NANOG hotel public area and chatting with some friends - not attending
sessions, not eating the food, not really crashing IMHO. Just enjoying
visiting with friends for a bit. This guy came to see if he could grab a
quick lunch with Ken - he didn't know what Ken looked like.
We seem to be becoming what we rebelled against, like Animal Farm.
While I think you owe us all an explanation on how you allowed that to
happen, the past doesn't matter, so would you be able to comment on
My role as a NANOG attendee does not include policing the door.
what you're doing to make things right? Which organization, Merit or
NewNog, should expect a $600 donation from
