Subject: [Diversity] Physical participation from folks in developing countries (was: Interim step on meetings site feedback for sites currently under active consideration)

From: SM <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 12:28:56 -0700

Hi Stephan, John,
At 08:25 20-04-2016, Stephan Wenger wrote:
>done below $3000, which would be a quarter of their annual 
>income.  To me, that sounds like self-sponsored trips are probably 
>out of question even to the most enthusiastic, unless they have 
>personal wealth well above average.  And I somewhat doubt that local 
>companies swim in money either.

Yes.

>Generalizing that: expecting large scale physical participation from 
>folks in developing countries is naive, IMO, except when you meet in 
>that region.  The return for our investment in traveling to BA has 
>to be measured on other scales.  The fact that so many locals showed 
>up physically at the meeting already speaks in favor.  If that is 
>followed up by remote/mailing list participation over the next few 
>years, that would be enough for me.

Anyone saying that he/she is expecting large scale physical 
participation from folks in developing countries would appear 
insincere.  However, participants residing in developing countries 
are likely afraid to say anything about that.

If the IETF would like to have some physical participation from 
developing countries, it would have to take responsibility for the 
funding issue.  Otherwise, it can only expect token physical 
attendance from developing countries.

There is the following from Stephen Farrell [1]:

   "Yes, we can participate via mailing lists. And we need to do
    better in encouraging folks to do that. And we need to do that
    over and over so that newer and older participants really get it."

Although it does not address physical participation problem, it can 
be a positive step.

Regards,
-sm

1. http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf/current/msg97929.html