[ericas] Fwd: Conclusions on South American IETF Meeting

["Eggert, Lars" <[e-mail]>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: The IAOC <[e-mail]>
> Subject: Conclusions on South American IETF Meeting
> Date: June 20, 2013 20:00:46 GMT+02:00
> To: IETF Announcement List <[e-mail]>
> Reply-To: <[e-mail]>
> 
> The IAOC would like to thank all the people who commented on the IETF
> list and responded to the survey. It was very helpful to the IAOC in
> identifying issues and interest.
> 
> As of 17 June 2013, the survey had 656 responses. This was more 
> responses than for any other survey we have done, and is more than 
> half of the number of people who usually attend an IETF meeting.
> 
> Of the unfiltered data, 72.3% said they would very likely or likely 
> attend a meeting in Buenos Aires. 13.3% said unlikely or very 
> unlikely. Of these 17.1% have not attended an IETF meeting and 38.7% 
> are not on a committee, WG chair, I-D author, or full time student. In 
> this group 169 people (25.7%) were from South America, Latin America, 
> or the Caribbean. The unfiltered survey results can be found at:
> 
> http://iaoc.ietf.org/documents/SurveySummary_Unfiltered_06172013.pdf
> 
> Applying a filter of only looking at the most active participants 
> (that is, IESG, IAB, IAOC, NomCom members, WG chairs, and I-D authors) 
> the Likely and Very Likely is 71.8% indicated they will attend, and 
> 13.8% said they were unlikely or very unlikely. In this group 26 
> people (7.0%) were from South America, Latin America, or the 
> Caribbean. Also, this group of the most active participants was Likely 
> or Very Likely to attend London at 85.9% (higher than South America) 
> and Yokohama at 68.4% (lower than South America). The filtered survey 
> results can be found at:
> 
> http://iaoc.ietf.org/documents/SurveySummary_Active_06172013-1.pdf
> 
> Based on these survey results, we conclude there would be good 
> attendance at a meeting in Buenos Aires overall, good attendance from 
> people in the region, and that most active participants will attend. 
> Active participants would attend at similar rates to their attendance 
> at other IETF meetings. From this viewpoint, holding a meeting in 
> Buenos Aires appears to be similar holding it in other locations 
> around the world.
> 
> The results from the survey by itself do not mean we should have an 
> IETF meeting in Buenos Aires, but it does eliminate several reasons 
> why we should not have a meeting there.
> 
> The harder questions as discussed on the IETF list relate to if we 
> should have a meeting in Buenos Aires.
> 
> The first part of this relates to whether having a single meeting in 
> South America will increase IETF participation from that region and 
> increase the diversity in the IETF. This was discussed a lot on the 
> IETF list. We agree that a single meeting isn't sufficient. We have 
> been talking with the Internet Society (ISOC) about programs and 
> events that could be held in the region leading up to and following an 
> IETF meeting in the region. They said that ISOC is planning to hold a 
> series of events and programs in South America. This would include:
> 
>  - Increasing the IETF Fellows and policy makers from the region
>  - Local meetings about IETF technologies
>  - Local meetings about Internet deployment approaches
>  - Local meetings with general information on how the IETF works and 
>     how to participate
> 
> The more detailed plan we received from ISOC can be found at:
> 
> http://iaoc.ietf.org/documents/ISOC%20Activities%20supporting%20IETF%20in%20LAC.pdf
> 
> The IAOC thinks that scheduling an IETF meeting in Beunos Aires and 
> announcing a series of events will increase the participation from 
> this region and may improve the IETF's cultural diversity.
> 
> The other general questions raised on the list are why should we do 
> this and will having a meeting in South America really help with the 
> issues we see relating to advancing the IETF in political and 
> international circles. Some people expressed skepticism that this 
> would really help. We don't think we can prove this factually, it is a 
> judgment call to a large extent, but we think the combination of the 
> IETF meeting and the ISOC events in the region will help.
> 
> The IAOC will proceed with planning a single meeting in Buenos Aires 
> based on what we have heard from the community, the survey, and our 
> discussions with ISOC regarding organizing events in South America. We 
> will also continue to track attendance from participants in all 
> regions.
> 
> We thank you for providing feedback on the IETF list and for 
> responding to the survey.
> 
> Bob Hinden
> IAOC Chair