On 23/03/2013 18:00, Dave Crocker wrote:
On 3/22/2013 8:24 PM, Joel M. Halpern wrote:
While I work for a very large shop now, for most of my career I have
worked for small or mid-size shops. Even startups. And all saw value
in sending me to IETF meetings.
Personal reference can be helpful for suggesting lines of analysis,
but not for obtaining the results of that analysis.
As example of possible 'sampling bias', note that you were already
targeting IETF attendance and a company that hires you is likely to
therefore already make that decision.
As usual, we need to be /very/ careful in treating ourselves as
representative of a market segment.
Precisely.
A better test of whether the IETF is seen as useful and cost-effective
for small companies is to compare there proportion of presence in the
IETF with their proportion of presence in the industry.
Or look at the presence of /new/ participation by small companies,
compared with the past, if we have the data.
Perhaps also include the organizations of all kinds, regardless of the
size. Meanwhile, the definition of "big" and "small" can be made less rigid.
Of course, these sorts of comparisons takes more thought and more work...
If deemed valuable for the grand topic Diversity, it will be good to
start preparing the analysis the sooner the better, since it takes time
and requires efforts.
-- Aaron
d/