Sometime in early May we (goldinc.com) got a call from Danny
Van Velkinburgh, an Account Executive of Growth Markets
for AT&T. He called to tell us about the upcoming MISPA meeting
and invited us to become members of MISPA by visiting the
Mississippi ISP Association Website.
Our first reaction was, "Oh great. Another Internet-related cold call." Drive to Jackson for a MISPA meeting? Yeah right.
Time passed.
Friday, May 7, we got an email from Cam Proctor of kopower.com. He asked simply "Did you know about this? Are you going to go [to the MISPA meeting]?" Things quickly turned into a "I'll go if you'll go" situation, so I planned on being in Jackson on Thursday, May 13. I called Danny and left a message saying that I would be attending. He called back and left a message confirming my RSVP. I called back and left a message confirming his confirmation of my RSVP -- over several days, of course :^) (whatever happened to email?!)
Thursday morning finally came, and I got one last email from Cam, confirming that he was going to be there. I changed the oil, the oil filter, and the air filter in my truck and headed North, leaving the coast around 11:20 AM. Frankly, I was more enthused about meeting Cam Proctor IRL than I was about joining MISPA or sitting through an AT&T marketing spiel ... but I was on my way, regardless.
"North on Highway 49, East on Interstate 20, North on Interstate 55, High Street exit, pass
under the Interstate and take the left at the first light. Ramada Inn will be the third hotel
on your left." Yes, I had called ahead for directions, having misplaced my recently purchased
street map of Jackson. I was sooo worried about arriving late, that I arrived almost an hour early!
<Obligatory Plug>
The Coliseum Ramada Inn, 400 Greymont Ave, Jackson, MS 39202, 606-969-2141
Has convenient access to I-20, I-55, the Coliseum, the Airport, and looks like
a really nice place to stay.
</Obligatory Plug>
At 2:05 PM I stopped at the front desk and asked for directions to the MISPA meeting. The
attendant didn't recognize the word "MISPA", but pointed me to the AT&T presentation
instead. "Down the hall, take a left, it will be on your left." I arrived at that turn
just in time to see Mr. Danny Van scratching out a "MISPA that-a-way" sign. I did my best
job at looking lost so that Danny would introduce himself. He remembered my name. He introduced
me to his AT&T cohorts, showed me my personalized name tag (complete with typo, for
which he later apologized) and
we shot the breeze waiting for other folks to show up.
And they did.
At 3:15 PM, IP Specialist Dave Green
of AT&T started his presentation
by purposefully deviating from the canned presentations, knowing that his audience
wouldn't need (or want) a standard "buy IP transport from us" talk.
Instead, he talked about what AT&T was doing,
what they planned to do, and their experience with emerging technology. Though I had
a hardcopy of the powerpoint slides, I took notes anyway:
Case Study, Peapod, Multi-Vendor/Multi-Homing BGP4. More specific vs. Sprint's ignoring routes less than /19 Punching holes in aggregates http://weblab.bns.att.com/~dbg (URL, as copied, didn't work) ---- Cerfnet, TCG Neotrace Re Voice over IP "The Quality often sucks" Route miles over Sonet leader: 41,000 Route-miles, 50+ ring families May 3, AT&T acquisition of IBM Global Network was finalized ---- 99.9% availability, packet loss < 1% Merging w/ Cerfnet backbones
Cam monopolized the question and answer times with Mr. Green. Partly because he could "talk the talk" with an IP Specialist, I suppose, but also because Cam Proctor had a large presence at the meeting. I learned that Cam Proctor has a large presence where ever he goes :^)
A few minutes for a bathroom break, and then to reconvene for MISPA ... but first the important matter.
There was a large sandwich tray, containing chicken-salad, egg-salad, tunafish, pimento cheese, and other standard party-variety sandwiches. The ones I had were excellent. There was also a heated container of nacho cheese w/ Jalapeno, surrounded by a platter of nacho chips. The chips ran out before the cheese dip did. Also excellent. There was also a snack tray, containing grapes, strawberries, various cube-shaped meats, and cheeses. The cheese could have used some snack crackers, and some of the meat was not, how should one say, moist, but what I tried, again, was superb. And not just because it was free. And not just because I was famished. Really. The food rewled.
There could have been a larger selection of soft drinks. (POP? Soda? We're in Mississippi, right?! It's all "Coke"). After the day was over, all that was left was diet coke. More Classic Coke! Also, there were only two small containers of cream for coffee. Compared to the sugar (and artificial sweetener) supply, the creamer supply was woefully inadequate. The coffee was decent, though.
One bad misconception I brought with me to the meeting was that MISPA,
as an entity, already existed. I learned that the purpose of the meeting was to obtain critical
mass for the creation of a Mississippi ISP Association. That is, there is no "us"
and "them".
MISPA will be whatever the Mississippi based ISPs want it to be. If anything.
We talked. Danny took notes. Cam volunteered to host a mailing list. Two committees
were appointed. One to find a meeting place for the July meeting, and one to get started
on some prototype by-laws, using the Florida ISP Association by-laws as a prototype.
The controversial stuff (personal prediction):