Re: [ericas] Starting the discussion

[Vinayak Hegde <[e-mail]>]

On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 12:45 AM, Melinda Shore <
[e-mail]> wrote:

> On 4/28/13 10:55 AM, S Moonesamy wrote:
> > There is the money barrier.  It is very expensive to attend IETF
> > meetings.  It's nearly impossible to get funding probably because the
> > local community does not see any value in the IETF.  There are a few
> > people who may have heard of the IETF.  Some of them have very little
> > understanding of how the IETF works.
>
> Do you feel that ISOC has a role to play in this?
>

ISOC has been doing a decent job with the ISOC fellowship to the IETF and
NGL (Next Generation Leaders) programme. What would help is some kind of
workshops co-located with ISOC regional Chapters events which give an idea
of what IETF meeting works and how to participate. Maybe a local
co-ordinated effort when IETF meetings are in progress.


>
> I should add that I'm not thrilled with the emphasis on meeting
> attendance as a marker of participation or non-participation.  We
> may not be doing a very good job of communicating how to participate
> in the IETF process without traveling to meetings.
>
> Yes and No.

First the Yes part. Agree on the part that IETF meetings should not be used
as a marker.

Why the reserved No ? Traveling to a meeting is a very different experience
than attending remotely. A couple of examples to qualify my reservations.
When participating remotely, it is not possible to have/eavesdrop on
corridor conversations. Much of my IETF learning has been this way. I
listen into conversations and ask "dumb" questions. Most people are helpful
with pointers and context. People who attend IETF regularly underestimate
the amount of knowledge trapped in the heads of regular IETF attendees.

Another aspect is cultural. I have been lucky enough to get several good
mentors at IETF who encouraged me. I have also been lucky to have attended
a few meetings thanks to ISOC. The #1 piece of advice I give to people from
Asia (especially South-east Asia) is to not take the comments on the draft
/ discussions personally. You will not believe the cultural shock that
people get from direct feedback. People have thanked me for giving this
advice. In Asia, we are every non-confrontational so it can be a little
jarring to attend some of the WG meetings. I had worked with an American
based MNC where this kind of interactions were quite frequent but even for
me the initial IETF WG meetings were a little jarring. I will not bore
people with the details though. I have come to appreciate deeply this
aspect of IETF culture to "get stuff done" but it does take a while to get
it.

Regards
Vinayak