Re: China blocking Wired?

On Jan 11, 2010, at 2:24 PM, Dave CROCKER wrote:
> >
> Methinks you are implicitly suggesting that the IETF's pages for a  
> site should include some "getting along in the site's country"  
> guidance as an on-going requirement.  Methinks this is an excellent  
> idea.
> Happily, "Doing Business in..." types of books are common, as is  
> online information.
> For example:
>
>   Chinese Etiquette
>   <http://www.goingtochina.com/misc/chinese_etiquette.htm>
>
>   China (especially see the Appearance, Behavior and Communications  
> sections)
>   <http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/china.htm>
>
>   Chinese Culture
>   <http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/businessculture.html>
Excellent idea. Specifically, the IETF-type information should be  
focussed on those things that are likely to impact IETFers, as opposed  
to conventional business-folks, at a given destination.  We aren't  
average business travelers: We dress more casually, carry much more  
electronic equipment, often sport unusual haircuts, have a broader  
array of medical conditions and food issues, have potentially more  
diverse reading habits, and so on. We're also a lot more likely to  
form in clusters that engage in loud debates about politically- 
sensitive topics. And obviously, we aren't ordinary tourists. How many  
ordinary tourists show up with a backpack full of wireless access  
points? Is that legal in China? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure one  
or more of us will do it.
And frankly, we're probably more blasé about international travel than  
"well prepared business people" might be. The pickpockets in Paris had  
an absolute field day with IETFers. I'm sure they were quite grateful  
for our lack of preparedness, relaxed-fit casual pants pockets, richly  
loaded wallets and expensive cell phones. We seem to have an  
assumption that every place is pretty much like every other place,  
they're all happy to see us, and one hotel conference room is the same  
as all the others.
The risks that a "typical IETFer" might encounter in Beijing are  
probably different from what you or I or Ole might encounter, given  
our ages, fairly conservative appearances, and past travel  
experiences. I think it might be very useful to think through the  
possibilities and see if we can pre-empt some of them.
I did do a quick scan on the references you thoughtfully provided  
above, and I found the "Appearance, Behavior, and Communications)  
reference especially interesting, because I just can't imagine a pack  
of IETFers complying with that set of rules.

This is starting to sound like it might be a good Wiki project. Who  
knows, maybe the IETF can collaborate to produce some useful IPR that  
isn't an RFC ;-)?
--
Dean
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