Re: Internet standardisation remains unilateral

From my experience over the years, I would generalize this that the 
developed world has dominated the standards process in this field, 
whether it was the IETF, ISO, ITU, or IEEE and most others.  Most of 
that has to do with the expense involved in participating.  Since the 
1990s, the ability to participate on-line has done a lot to lower 
that barrier and we see that.  At one point IEEE was considered a US 
professional organization and all of their standards were run through 
ISO.  Some still are.
It still takes time for countries to "come up to speed" and do we 
really have any idea how many are watching but contributing 
infrequently. As Jorge points out we are seeing this change, although 
perhaps not as fast as we (or they) would like.
Yes, English is a problem for all non-English speakers.   It takes a 
lot of effort to work in a foreign language even when you are fluent, 
and English isn't the easiest of languages.  ;-) I have discussed 
this with many people and there does not seem to any way around it. 
150 years ago, it would have been French.  How often do you see two 
non-English speakers conversing in English because it is the only 
common denominator?  It looks like we are stuck with it.  I know of 
no standards committee that does not operate in English, although 
some may run plenaries with translation into one or two other 
languages.  (For all of you non-English speakers, be glad that most 
of us American English speakers don't speak another language!  Lets 
you talk about us without us knowing what you are saying!)  ;-)
As with most things like this, if the problem isn't stressed progress 
against the issue will be even slower.  There are structural issues 
in the IETF that allow over representation in meetings, what some 
might call stacking meetings, but this seems to be a case more of 
companies stacking meeting rather than countries.
But as a friend said to me, it is good to see that after 40+ years, 
Pouzin is still getting people riled up!  He has a very long history 
of this!  ;-)  It got him black balled in France.
Take care,
John Day

At 9:34 AM -0500 10/21/13, Jorge Amodio wrote:
> He is right that the USA and perhaps other developed countries 
> dominate the Internet standardization process but there is a good 
> reason why and that when I talk with people from developing 
> countries like mine (Argentina) they don't are able yet to 
> understand that blaming the "north" is not the solution and what 
> they need to do is to gets hands on into the issue and 
> develop/implement reasonable policies to have more participation in 
> the process.
> Obviously there is a lot of participation from people from the USA 
> or working for US companies, full time or almost full time 
> participation in the IETF process requires for the participant to 
> have a sponsor, after all she/he still needs to live in a decent 
> place, feed her/his family and pay the bills, and have some security 
> for retirement in the long term, plus pay for the trips, etc, etc.
> US companies (and sometimes the government) know very well that it 
> has a lot of strategic value for the company, and the country, to 
> sponsor such type of individuals. I doubt that Vint Cerf, Halald 
> Alvestrand (which btw is from Norway not the USA), and many others, 
> are part of the daily grind working at Google and punching time 
> cards, but Google recognizes and value having such type of 
> individuals embedded in the development of the Internet, and they 
> have big pockets to fund them.
> The issue is that the knuckleheads in charge in other parts of the 
> world don't get yet to understand that if they want to be part of 
> the process they have to invest in it, and particularly sponsor 
> skilled and capable individuals so they can dedicate most of their 
> time and brain to it and not worry about how they will pay the bills 
> at the end of the month or if they will have a job next week, and 
> for sure they will have to compete for talent with US based 
> companies.
> So for the knuckleheads stop whining and do something ...
>
> My .02
> -J
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 7:58 AM, Stephane Bortzmeyer 
> <<mailto:bortzmeyer(_at_)nic(_dot_)fr>bortzmeyer(_at_)nic(_dot_)fr> wrote:
> What did they say, in the movie Apocalypse Now? "I like the smell of
> the troll in the morning"?
>
> <http://innovation-regulation2.telecom-paristech.fr/wp-content/uploads/Documents/thematiques/Standardization/Pouzin-Internet_standardisatio.pdf>http://innovation-regulation2.telecom-paristech.fr/wp-content/uploads/Documents/thematiques/Standardization/Pouzin-Internet_standardisatio.pdf