February 1, 2011
MIAMI, Florida – During a ceremony this morning at NANOG51 in Miami, Steve Feldman of NewNOG Inc. and Donald Welch of Merit Network Inc. signed an agreement to transfer ownership of the North American Network Operators’ Group (NANOG) trademark, meeting archives, and domain (nanog.org) to NewNOG. The agreement comes after months of discussions between NewNOG, Merit Network, and University of Michigan.
“Today is a milestone in the history of NANOG,” Feldman said during the ceremony. “With this agreement, which is effective on February 7, Merit Network is transferring the ownership of NANOG to NewNOG.”
NANOG is an educational forum where the operators of backbone and enterprise networks share information and operational best practices. NANOG, formed in 1994, has become a vital meeting point for professionals who make the Internet work. NANOG meetings have been held three times each year, and the NANOG email discussion list currently has over 10,000 members. Since its founding, NANOG has been hosted by Merit Network of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In April 2010, the NANOG Steering Committee formed NewNOG, a non-profit organization, and began working with Merit on the necessary steps to transform NANOG into an independent organization. At NANOG50, held in October in Atlanta, the NANOG community passed a charter amendment endorsing NewNOG and recommending an orderly transition.
“NANOG is a vibrant community of networking professionals that has grown significantly over the years,” said Don Welch, president and CEO of Merit Network. “Since 1994, Merit has worked diligently to nurture and support NANOG. We believe the NANOG community possesses the leadership and resources to continue as an important information exchange among network operators.”
“The Internet operations community owes a large debt of gratitude to Merit Network for its role in founding and supporting NANOG since 1994,” said Steve Feldman, chair of NewNOG’s board of directors. “The NewNOG board of directors also greatly appreciates Merit’s spirit of cooperation throughout this transition period. As NewNOG moves forward with the independent operation of the NANOG conferences, email discussion lists, and other activities, we look forward to Merit’s continued participation as an integral part of the community.”
About Merit Network
Merit Network Inc., is a nonprofit corporation owned and governed by Michigan’s public universities. Merit owns and operates America’s longest-running regional research and education network. In 1966, Michigan’s public universities created Merit as a shared resource to help meet their common need for networking assistance. Since its formation, Merit Network has remained on the forefront of research and education networking expertise and services. Merit provides high-performance networking and IT solutions to Michigan’s public universities, colleges, K-12 organizations, libraries, state government, healthcare, and other non-profit organizations.
For more information: www.merit.edu
About NewNOG
NewNOG Inc. is a nonprofit corporation formed to promote dialog between people concerning the creation, maintenance and operation of Internet Protocol networks. NewNOG is not itself a network operator—rather, it is a facilitator of discussion, learning, and technical communication between networking professionals. NewNOG provides a forum where people from the network research community, the network operator community and the network vendor community can come together to identify and solve the problems that arise in operating and growing the Internet.
For more information: newnog.org
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