Re: [Diversity] Concerns about Singapore

[<[e-mail]>]

>

> Stepping back a little, and going off-topic, the issue of a few years ago
> was diversity in the IESG.  The current issue is diversity in the IAOC.  It
> highlights a cultural insensitivity within the IETF.


+100

Guys, I want to put together some thoughts (for whatever they are worth) about what IMHO is really going on.  The venue issue is the canary in the coal mine that is highlighting some fundamental transitions that are taking place in the world.  The IETF is not immune from the changes that it itself has helped to create: that is the Internet and the power shifts that are taking place as a result.

Now, again IMHO, we can do this the hard way (try to really understand the problem, really listen to each viewpoint & try to understand each other's reality) or we can do it the harder way (ignore the fundamental problem, focus on details, and be non-transparent).

Naturally, once the "harder" way does not work, we will be back to the first.

When I was in my mid-twenties, I spent two of the happiest years of my life as a Peace Corps volunteer living at the edge of the bush in West Africa under a military dictatorship, with no free speech, no running water, and intermittent electricity.   The reason the time was happy was because of the generosity, warmth and kindness of the people who welcomed a stranger into their lives.

The reality of many parts of the world is very unfamiliar to people in the western world, and seems even "wrong".  IMHO, this is a part of what we are seeing with the whole "Singapore" issue.   People at the IETF have talked about wanting "diversity" for quite a while.  Well, it is coming quickly.  The reality of it demands changes and flexibility from all.

I feel that the IETF with its tradition of transparency and collaboration is uniquely equipped to handle this challenge.  If it can't work here, it can't work anywhere.  And, I think it can work at the IETF.  But the "how" may require some innovation in how we go about this.

I will write my thoughts up (again, if they can be of any help to the community).  But, I just got home & I am brain dead & exhausted.  So, after wrapping up a few other email thread, I am going on radio silence for a week or so.

Nalini