Policy and regulator connections (Was: Re: Thoughts from IETF-92)

[Jari Arkko <[e-mail]>]

Fred said:

> Be careful what you wish for. You may discover that you already have it.
> 
> ISOC brings on the order of 12-15 “policy fellows” to IETF meetings regularly, introduces them to the IETF, and has a series of talks given by technical folks to help them understand the Internet better. I suspect that the thing most of them walk away with is the business cards of a few people they think might be able to answer questions for them in the future, and the fact that we don’t bite - at least not outsiders.
> 
> And yes, I suspect they will do so in Prague, Yokohama, Buenos Aires, and in the meetings that follow.

Indeed. This has been and continues to be a very useful program. And more often than not, we meet these people around the world in other contexts, and having established some connections beforehand is a big help.

Note that this is a bidirectional relationship - both sides have a lot to learn. There are many topics where we are learning that technology and other aspects overlap. Or that information and education is needed to let us understand each other better.

And Christian said:

> What I am saying I suppose is that there are a lot of threads in the
> policy space and complexity is not just in the technical demarcations
> between subject matter areas but in who to engage with and the level of
> clue and opinion and interests on all sides.
> 
> This work really does need commitment across our communities to support it.
> 
> But if one starts off by saying "idiots ...." because they don't get
> "xxx " then you are really saying you don't get why they think "yyy".
> 
> In some senses that may be the larger challenge. I am not saying you are
> wrong about the analysis but that it is not a policy objective or
> analysis that is usable.


Fully agree.

Jari