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RE: The first issue (was : A sort of council of elders for the internet)

2013-11-14 08:21:00
A number of people need to have active drafts, be in a leadership role, or 
giving a presentation to attend any standards meeting unless it is part of 
their job to report back on what happened at a particular standards meeting.  
Some are measured on getting publications as well if they attend.  At ITU-T 
meetings, it was often the case that researchers had to get a publication as 
part of a funded research project, considered a deliverable for the project.

For me, I started attending because I wrote a document in a call for papers 
years ago.  Then the paper was selected and I was asked as a next step to 
submit it to the IETF.  Now I attend for several reasons, but make a point of 
providing summary reports back to my colleagues so they see the value in me 
attending in addition to my chair roles and any documents I may be working on.

I don't think it's the IETF's place to provide a policy back to companies on 
who to send or how many people can attend.  This is a financial decision for 
many companies.  The cost of the trip itself isn't the issue, but the person's 
time for the week may be.

Best regards,
Kathleen

-----Original Message-----
From: ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org 
[mailto:ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] On Behalf Of Alessandro Vesely
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2013 7:49 AM
To: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: The first issue (was : A sort of council of elders for the 
internet)

On Wed 13/Nov/2013 20:44:38 +0100 Andrew Feren wrote:
On 11/13/2013 02:08 PM, SM wrote:
You and I arrived to the IETF through quite unusual paths.

:-)

A key question is how everybody else happen to join in.  In 
particular, how do companies decide who of their employees 
participates in IETF activities, if any.

I don't know whether anybody would want to look into that.

Because it involves confidential info or because it's boring?

I can't speak for anyone else, but every time my employer (for several 
values of employer) has sent me to an IETF meeting it has been because 
I was the one who was participating and asked to go.
My participation has never started out as an employer directive.

That's the ideal case scenario here.  Thank you for sharing it.

If a company has more people asking to go than the number it is willing or 
capable to support, it is forced to make choices.  The rationale can vary 
widely, from practical considerations, favoritism, or discrimination to formal 
policies, possibly including gender diversity.  Should the IETF recommend a 
specific policy?

Self-employed and companies so small that the number of people they are willing 
or capable to support is zero deserve special attention:
A good deal of free software is developed by such people.  See 
http://p2pfoundation.net/Free_Software_Production_-_Class_Structure

A per-country distribution of computer-related employment shows small 
businesses accounting for only the 32% in the US, but that figure goes up to 
67% in the UK and 73% in Italy.  See figure 4 in 
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/small-business-2009-08.pdf

Ale
--
The current legal definition of small business does not allow small businesses 
to compete effectively against giants in the telecom industry.
                            http://www.sba.gov/advocacy/7540/12143


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