Re: IETF Challenges

[SM <[e-mail]>]

At 04:38 03-03-2013, Abdussalam Baryun wrote:
>For me that am from Africa, I do prefer to join the WGs in IETF, but
>it seems that most meeting of IETF don't come to Asia or Africa nor
>provide there a conference room with the live meetings ( IETF needs to
>work with Internet Society Chapters in thoes places). I think it is a
>challenge to IETF's Works/I-Ds to consider real
>inputs/suggestions/applications of Asia and Africa communities to the
>IETF. Under the IETF role it is very easy of WG chairs to ignore
>minority participants of large communities.

Here is a quote from someone in Africa who was involved in other I* 
bodies (not the IETF):

   "Africa has many educated people with a great local perspective; however
    they have little global influence.  I find that it is not enough to invite
    people to forums where it is a known fact that they will not contribute
    meaningfully."

The IETF has gone to Asian countries.  Even if the IETF were to go to 
South America or Africa the above would still be relevant.  The 
individuals from the United States or Europe face the same problems 
as anyone else.  Having a meeting as a matter of national pride will 
give you national pride and nothing else.

Abdussalam, I'll ask an unfair question: How will the Internet 
Society Chapters in those places contribute meaningfully to the IETF [1]?

At 05:05 03-03-2013, Mikael Abrahamsson wrote:
>My experience is that there is a huge difference between different 
>WGs. Some I have sent email to without response, then actually 
>emailed the WG chair and asked if the topic of my email was within 
>the WG scope, still no answer. This is an example of an WG that's 
>hard to get into, seems populated by people who mostly discuss 
>within an already established group and where nobody seems to bother 
>that someone comes in with an idea to even give them a reply that 
>their idea is not on topic or alike.

Yes.  As an anecdote I had a somewhat similar experience.  It does 
not bother me and I am not inclined to do anything about it.

>Some other WGs are populated by people who are very happy to respond 
>and discuss to anyone who comes up with something, which is very welcoming.

Yes.

>I see the IETF as a meetingplace or "market" for people to gather 
>and cooperate in. It's hard to encourage this more than what is 
>done. The barrier for entry is quite low (I have only been to a 
>single IETF meeting, the one that was in my home town Stockholm a 
>few years back), and even before that to participate in a lot of 
>WGs, it's only a matter of having access to email and time and 
>willingness to participate. I can imagine that language and culture 
>is one of the biggest barriers. For me, coming from FOSS/Fidonet 
>discussion culture, joining the IETF was not so different. For 
>others, coming from perhaps a fairly closed corporate climate or a 
>country culture where hierarchy is important, I can imagine it's 
>very different.

The above explains it nicely.

Regards,
-sm

1. http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf/current/msg62861.html