Besides the language there is a big digital divide particularly in South
America.
Many of you know that actively participating in this type of forums
requires a non trivial amount of time (plus skills and knowledge.) In
developed countries some IETF members have a better financial situation or
are being sponsored/supported by an array of organizations or other
activities that help pay the bills.
Researchers, students, engineers, you name it, in other parts of the world
including South America are in a daily battle to subsist, including trying
to survive some stupid regulations that do not help development, like
restrictions or taxes on publications, tools, materials, etc. Often is very
hard to obtain the resources to participate at international meetings like
IETF, and in the particular case of Argentina travel expenses are very high
and flight times are longer and with many stops. This is not something new,
in the early days (when I lived in AR) we were always begging to get
support to be able to participate on meetings or similar activities.
One thing that could help is if some companies like Cisco, Google, Juniper,
etc, with presence in the region start sponsoring some individuals that
have been participating or are interested to participate at IETF so they
can have more time and financial resources.
Taking the IETF meeting to Buenos Aires is not a bad idea, but when the
meeting is over the root problem will still be there.
My .02
Jorge
On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 10:02 PM, David Conrad <drc(_at_)virtualized(_dot_)org>
wrote:
On May 23, 2013, at 7:44 PM, Melinda Shore
<melinda(_dot_)shore(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com>
wrote:
So the question is why we aren't seeing more drafts, reviews, and
discussions from people in Central and South America,
Language?
Regards,
-drc