On 2010-10-29 23:34, Pascal Gloor wrote: [..]
Jeroen, what you describe belongs to Net Neutrality. I am fully in favour of Net Neutrality on every aspect of it and I would even expect such an association do run a Net Neutrality quality label for its members
respecting it. [..]
I don't think such an association should exclude ISPs for such reasons (well, at the end, the general assembly decides). The association should, on
the other
side, push for existing standards and create the non-existing ones
(like Net Neutrality).
It could push standard on how the Internet service is defined, so
customers can expect
the same service under the same conditions from different ISPs. And
more and more and more.
I agree, 'exclusion' should not be the case, but a single voice and statement is most very likely a good thing, thus if one is a member adhering to, for the association, important parts, can be useful.
You give a possible solution already: "labels" or generally "logos".
One of the things that this association could be giving out to its members are logos, and that can be a huge marketing advantage to its membership and something which could make a reason for an ISP to join the association, next to things like the lawful intercept model etc.
The association can then provide logos for instance for Net Neutrality and IPv6 Support which the member can put on their website and can also use to publish those logos in advertisements and other such material.
The association should be neutral, of course, and can thus provide a huge index of all the ISPs and what they offer, thus providing a way for consumers/enterprises to easily find the service they require, of course they will be influenced by the logos that a company has.
Another thing that then of course comes to mind, is something which at the moment lies a bit closer to my heart and will talk about at the next SwiNOG meeting: central abuse desk. The association can keep a list of confidential contacts which are the true troubleshooters in a network so that when a problem hits (read: botnet etc) there is a central Swiss location for reaching out to all the ISPs that are involved in this.
In similar vain, the association can serve as a consumer comment point about ISPs, along with the overview above, consumer comments could be accepted into the overview thus giving a good view of what consumers are thinking about and what their concerns are. This information can then be used by the contacts at those ISPs to improve/change what they are doing as the comments there will be different than the problems that might not pass through their helpdesks. Of course we can then discuss these comments in general on either a new association list of directly on this list.
Note the 'could' and 'should' etc, just ideas all of it, but there are lots of viable options this could take to make the association well known and respected around the country.
Greets, Jeroen