Subject: Conclusions on South American IETF Meeting

From: The IAOC <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 11:00:46 -0700

The IAOC would like to thank all the people who commented on the IETF
list and responded to the survey. It was very helpful to the IAOC in
identifying issues and interest.

As of 17 June 2013, the survey had 656 responses. This was more 
responses than for any other survey we have done, and is more than 
half of the number of people who usually attend an IETF meeting.

Of the unfiltered data, 72.3% said they would very likely or likely 
attend a meeting in Buenos Aires. 13.3% said unlikely or very 
unlikely. Of these 17.1% have not attended an IETF meeting and 38.7% 
are not on a committee, WG chair, I-D author, or full time student. In 
this group 169 people (25.7%) were from South America, Latin America, 
or the Caribbean. The unfiltered survey results can be found at:

http://iaoc.ietf.org/documents/SurveySummary_Unfiltered_06172013.pdf

Applying a filter of only looking at the most active participants 
(that is, IESG, IAB, IAOC, NomCom members, WG chairs, and I-D authors) 
the Likely and Very Likely is 71.8% indicated they will attend, and 
13.8% said they were unlikely or very unlikely. In this group 26 
people (7.0%) were from South America, Latin America, or the 
Caribbean. Also, this group of the most active participants was Likely 
or Very Likely to attend London at 85.9% (higher than South America) 
and Yokohama at 68.4% (lower than South America). The filtered survey 
results can be found at:

http://iaoc.ietf.org/documents/SurveySummary_Active_06172013-1.pdf

Based on these survey results, we conclude there would be good 
attendance at a meeting in Buenos Aires overall, good attendance from 
people in the region, and that most active participants will attend. 
Active participants would attend at similar rates to their attendance 
at other IETF meetings. From this viewpoint, holding a meeting in 
Buenos Aires appears to be similar holding it in other locations 
around the world.

The results from the survey by itself do not mean we should have an 
IETF meeting in Buenos Aires, but it does eliminate several reasons 
why we should not have a meeting there.

The harder questions as discussed on the IETF list relate to if we 
should have a meeting in Buenos Aires.

The first part of this relates to whether having a single meeting in 
South America will increase IETF participation from that region and 
increase the diversity in the IETF. This was discussed a lot on the 
IETF list. We agree that a single meeting isn't sufficient. We have 
been talking with the Internet Society (ISOC) about programs and 
events that could be held in the region leading up to and following an 
IETF meeting in the region. They said that ISOC is planning to hold a 
series of events and programs in South America. This would include:

  - Increasing the IETF Fellows and policy makers from the region
  - Local meetings about IETF technologies
  - Local meetings about Internet deployment approaches
  - Local meetings with general information on how the IETF works and 
     how to participate

The more detailed plan we received from ISOC can be found at:

 http://iaoc.ietf.org/documents/ISOC%20Activities%20supporting%20IETF%20in%20LAC.pdf

The IAOC thinks that scheduling an IETF meeting in Beunos Aires and 
announcing a series of events will increase the participation from 
this region and may improve the IETF's cultural diversity.

The other general questions raised on the list are why should we do 
this and will having a meeting in South America really help with the 
issues we see relating to advancing the IETF in political and 
international circles. Some people expressed skepticism that this 
would really help. We don't think we can prove this factually, it is a 
judgment call to a large extent, but we think the combination of the 
IETF meeting and the ISOC events in the region will help.

The IAOC will proceed with planning a single meeting in Buenos Aires 
based on what we have heard from the community, the survey, and our 
discussions with ISOC regarding organizing events in South America. We 
will also continue to track attendance from participants in all 
regions.

We thank you for providing feedback on the IETF list and for 
responding to the survey.

Bob Hinden
IAOC Chair