Re: [Diversity] Participation in active IETF work (was: Interim step on meetings site feedback for sites currently under active consideration)

[Vinayak Hegde <[e-mail]>]

On Tue, Apr 19, 2016 at 10:03 PM, SM <[e-mail]> wrote:
> At 06:50 19-04-2016, [e-mail] wrote:
>>
>> Yes, of course.  But, it is a bit more nuanced than that.   I think it is
>> difficult to get a real sense of the IETF & the excitement & purpose unless
>> you attend live & get involved.
>
> It's difficult to get a sense of the IETF by attending one meeting.  There
> are people who have attended several meetings and did not get involved in
> active IETF work.
>
> Is the main problem the difficulty to get funding to attend IETF meetings
> and does that have an impact on active IETF work?

Yes & No. YMMV everyone is different. Some people are very happy
contributing remotely and physical meetings might not matter as much
to them. But this subset is small. I would guess for most people a
physical meeting still helps a lot. On the other end of the spectrum
there might be people who have come multiple times and have not
contributed much or are not as active.

I think it is getting easier to contribute (for someone who wants to),
thanks to meetecho, remote presentations, wider diversity of meeting
venues (due to 1:1:1:1*) and various trainings and mentoring that is
available now. But all said and done IMHO, being at a meeting still is
a quite different experience (due to physical presence, bumping into
people - serendipity, focus and facetime)

-- Vinayak