User groups: Why it matters that your voice is heard

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: STEVE TAYLOR AND JIM METZLER ON WIDE
AREA NETWORKING
10/13/05
Today's focus: User groups: Why it matters that your voice is
heard

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Readers write in about a telco user group and why you need to
speak up
* Links related to Wide Area Networking
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: User groups: Why it matters that your voice is
heard

By Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler

Following up yet again on user groups and their impact on the
telecommunications environment, today we'd like to share a
couple more comments. In particular, Jim Blaszak, an attorney at
Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby wrote about the Ad Hoc
Telecommunications Users Committee, of which he is counsel.

Blaszak said that Ad Hoc is a group of about 20 large companies
from a broad range of industry sectors, including financial
services, manufacturing, insurance, retail, accounting and
consulting, transportation, and information services. "What the
members all have in common is that they are IT and
telecom-intensive companies - they spend enough money in both
areas to care about keeping prices as low as possible. Ad Hoc
accepts no carrier/vendor funding and no telecom service
providers as members. Maintaining its independence is critically
important because Ad Hoc's principal reason for being is the
representation of its members' interests in regulatory matters
pending before government agencies and the courts," he wrote.

He noted that Ad Hoc's interests and positions often diverge
from those of carriers and vendors. "As the only end user group
that digs into these issues on a consistent, long-term basis, Ad
Hoc has had a huge impact over the last 25 years on the FCC
rules that push IT and telecom prices down," he said.

He said that due to the numerous activities of the group, "Ad
Hoc members have invaluable advance information for making their
deployment and procurement decisions. Enterprise users who don't
have this information proceed at their own peril. Finally, the
group is a great learning and networking opportunity for member
company representatives."

To learn more about Ad Hoc, you can e-mail Blaszak
<mailto:jblaszak@lb3law.com>, or Colleen Boothby
<mailto:cboothby@lb3law.com>, another attorney at Levine,
Blaszak, Block & Boothby, who has represented Ad Hoc. "Thanks to
Ad Hoc, enterprise customers still have a home and a voice in
Washington," Blaszak said.

Nevertheless, not all readers agree that all is rosy,
particularly when it comes to users having input for technical
specifications and vendor product development. Our colleague
Alan Weissberger wrote: "Telecom users groups seem to be a thing
of the past. There are many promising new telecom technologies
for the enterprise, e.g., carrier Ethernet, WiMAX (especially as
a wireless tail circuit), QoS based IP VPNs, evolution to
[next-generation networks], etc. However, users are not at all
involved in their standardization, providing requirements, or
use cases/usage patterns to various fora, alliances, or
standards organizations.

"How can network architectures be built and standards generated
without user inputs - especially requirements and prioritization
of features/ functions?"

Bottom line in our opinion? The good news is that there is
still some activity. However, the industry will ultimately
suffer significantly in the long-term if we - as users - don't
make our collective voice heard.

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5. Bechtel says move to IPv6 is all about business
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_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates
and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed
information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter,
connect to Webtorials <http://www.webtorials.com/>, the premier
site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and
market research. Taylor can be reached at
<mailto:taylor@webtorials.com>

Jim Metzler is the Vice President of Ashton, Metzler &
Associates, a consulting organization that focuses on leveraging
technology for business success. Jim assists vendors to refine
product strategies, service providers to deploy technologies and
services, and enterprises evolve their network infrastructure.
He can be reached at <mailto:jim@ashtonmetzler.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Tacit Networks
Download this Network World Executive Guide: Storage Trends and
Strategies

From simplicity to complexity, Storage has taken on more
responsibility involving security and many other top demands.
Explore the hottest trends in Storage today written by the
editors of Network World for IT professionals, in the following
Executive Guide and examine extended case studies of users and
advice from storage specialists. Register now and get your free
copy of Network Word's Storage Executive Guide.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=117445
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