Re: [Diversity] IETF Diversity Update

[Vinayak Hegde <[e-mail]>]

On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 9:15 PM, SM <[e-mail]> wrote:
> Hi Fernando, Vinayak, Alejandro,
> At 00:42 15-12-2015, Fernando Gont wrote:
>>
>> I'm not they "you" you meant :-), but I can provide names:
>
>
> Fernando, thanks for providing the information.
>
>> That said, I don't think "lack of awareness" is the real problem here.
>
>
> From http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/diversity/current/msg00700.html
>
>   'kind of got the feeling that that there was the intent to do
>    something about it, but for the most part it was "energy spent
>    without careful analysis of what the underlying problem was".'
>
> From http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/diversity/current/msg00695.html I
> read that the agencies providing funding for countries in Latin America do
> not find it useful to spend money on IETF standardisation work.
>
> The statistics provided by Jari Arkko measures IETF Contributions in terms
> of RFC authorship.  I could be a WG Secretary/Chair; that has less "value"
> unless I am interested in becoming An Area Director.  A company/agency would
> view it useful if it derives a benefit from having a person in that
> position.
>
> What is your opinion about the above?

Hi SM,

I am not sure what Fernando is refering to:
I think I have pointed out some common issues that I (and other from
my region have faced).

1. Awareness of the IETF - How the IETF process can be beneficial for
companies / organizations to build better and interoperable products.
Outreach and sometimes lack of role models and mentors is also an
issue (covered in next point)

2. Lack of a good mentor network - How do you go and get feedback
about the process and drafts from someone local or someone who is from
the same culture and / or talks the same language and understand IETF.

3. Funding - Harder to come by in developing countries but I have seen
this changing slowly but surely. ISOC and other local organizations
are doing a good job here. I can see the efforts of these helping.

4. Visas - This is often the elephant in the room. It is just painful
to get a visa if you are in a developing country and the amount of
documentation needed is insane. I have often submitted 200+ pages of
documentation and had my visa rejected for flimsy reasons. This is
something people from US/Europe do not face as much and understand.
Again This has gotten better over the years (such as personalized IETF
invitation letters).

I can see that the IETF is helping in 1 (but can do much more), 2 is
slowly getting fixed due to mentoring network / regional mentors
thanks to individual efforts (Nalini, Alvaro, Christian amongst
others), 3 (nothing much IETF can do AFAIK here - thrugh not charging
so far for remote access has been helpful), 4 - IETF has improved here
over the lasy 5 years but still some way to go (like hosting hotel
rooms getting sold out).

Thanks
Vinayak