Hi Carlos.
On Nov 16, 2012, at 3:25 PM, Carlos M. Martinez wrote:
Hello,
On 11/16/12 1:27 AM, John Levine wrote:
Shall we move on?
Sure. Since we agree that there is no way to pay for the extra costs
involved in meeting in places where there are insignificant numbers of
IETF participants, it won't happen, and we're done.
I don't remember when I agreed with that. In fact I believe quite the
opposite holds. If there was a will there would be ways. However, what I
read here is a lot of refusal, denial and roadblocking.
There may be ways. But what you are suggesting requires more money. The way the
IETF is run now, it's a very frugal organization. Read the budget slides from
any meeting, those numbers are small when compared with many of the
organizations that participants come from. One of the great aspects of the
IETF's openness is that anyone can participate for the cost of an Internet
connection (I had my first RFC published before ever attending a meeting), and
for a relatively small amount (when compared to other bodies) they can also
attend meetings. This makes it possible for small companies and even individual
consultants to attend, participate, and even chair working groups. We even have
some people who are salaried employees, but for whatever reasons, their
companies are not interested in funding them, and they pay their own way.
With increased meeting fees and/or travel budget this goes away, and the IETF
becomes the domain of large companies and governments. At least the meetings.
I can't speak for other regions, but from ours, there are at least four
organizations which manage significant budgets, have been in the
conference organization business for more than 10 years, and which would
be very interested in having an IETF in Latin America.
Then they should propose to host a meeting. I don't think the IAOC would deny
them. There is the question or airfare and flight availability, but as long as
the meeting is at or near a big enough hub, such as Mexico City, Rio de
Janeiro, Buenos Aires, or Sao Paolo, the IETF is not exactly choosy.
Moving the IETF forward will involve reaching out to other peoples,
other regions, and yes, travel farther away once in a while. I also
understand that we need to do our part in terms of fostering and
increasing the contribution of our region. I said this in an earlier
email and I stand by it.
Yes, there are people the IETF should reach out to, people who are missing from
our meetings and our mailing lists. But I don't think that group is defined
geographically. There are segments of our industry that are not represented or
not represented enough in the IETF, like web developers and big website
operators. We need some of those, regardless of where in the world they live.
Yoav