Re: [81attendees] diverse meeting locations (was: are we getting complacent? Good job!)

[Curtis Villamizar <[e-mail]>]

This thread wasn't really about meeting location so I changed the subject.

Just FYI - I've attended IETF on and off since 1992.  Attendance then had just broken 200.

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Up until the early 1990s most of the Internet infrastructure was funded by the US NSF (National Science Foundation), including much of the (small amount of) research and education networking in Europe and the Far East Asia.  Not surprising that meetings at that time were in NA, mostly US.

Meetings began to be held in Europe as well as North America in the early 1990s when there was significant activity in Europe that was funded by Europeans, a strong growth in European participation in IETF, and willing sponsors.

The Internet originated in NA, then Europe, but is now very much a global thing and we are now having IETF meetings all over the world.  We really could consider where the majority of participants come from, which is not from Far East Asia, but we want IETF to be accessible to regions with a significant number of participants.

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I'm not arguing that we should not hold meetings in diverse locations, but with your logic we should hold regular IETF meetings in Africa since they are more underprivileged than any other part of the world that we could expect participation from.  So far that has not happened probably because we would expect very few local participants and we may not be able to find a sponsor.

There have been suggestions that we meet in South America and Africa, but AFAIK no sponsors.  Travel logistics would likely be even more challenging, but as long as the destination had a sponsor, was reasonably accessible, and was safe to travel to, I'm sure IAOC would strongly consider it.

I don't think IAOC has been unfair in its site selection.  There are many factors for them to consider.

Curtis

From: [e-mail] [mailto:[e-mail]] On Behalf Of Dae Young KIM
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 10:54 AM
To: Jakob Heitz
Cc: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: [81attendees] are we getting complacent? Good job!

On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 2:29 AM, Jakob Heitz <[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:
The IAOC doing a great job. Don't change a thing, guys.

The IETF is a global organization. It is important to
have meetings in diverse parts of the world to make sure
that anyone from anywhere can attend at least some of the time.

+1.

This thread reminds me of the struggles that a lot of non-North-American(NA) participants, especially those from the unprevileged corner of Far East Asia, had to go through for so many meetings until now, and that with considerably lower budgets than elsewhere.

Without considerations for diversity, and with continuing NA-centric criteria, and especially in this era of emerging new market regions, I doubt whether IETF can continue to claim it's a global international community, not any more NA-centric one.

--
DY