[ITNOG] R: la lingua ufficiale di ITNOG

[Job Snijders]

Dear all,

I'd like to share some information from NLNOG for your consideration.
First of all: don't just copy whatever other NOGs do: make up your own
mind, think hard about what the Italian network operator community
needs and how they are served best.

In NLNOG we have a mix of English and Dutch, but a lot of it is
English. For some reason almost every Dutch adult is able to carry
conversation in English, as Dutch NOG we seek to lower the barrier for
participation in the context of the Netherlands, which means that it
is of interest to us to make it easier for expats to join in! But
maybe in Italy there is less expats and more Italians? These
parameters of course differ from country to country - which is why
there is no one golden method.

Our biggest event (in September) is entirely in English, presenters
have to adhere to English speaking + slides. But we also have a
smaller event in Spring which is either Dutch, English, or a mix of
the two - whatever the presenter feels comfortable with. While NLNOG
attendees master English, not everyone feels comfortable *presenting*
in English - so here too we need to strive to lower the barrier to
participation. At the NLNOG New Years Drink there is no presentations
so people talk whatever language they feel comfortable with.

As a participant of ITNOG I immensely appreciate the patience people
show by putting up with my lack of Italian. I know English isn't
everyone's native language (nor is it mine) so its really cool people
take the time to listen. As attendee I don't expect other
presentations to be in English, because I don't feel I am the target
audience for ITNOG: Italian operators are the target audience.

Priority 1: serve the italian network operator community
Priority 2: make the internet a better place
....
Priority 248: cater to the foreign attendees like me

I think Tofoni Titian is on the right track - maybe the best way to
distribute knowledge in Italy is by distributing it in Italian, and
help translate foreign information into Italian so more Italians have
access to it!

Kind regards,

Job