[AfrICANN-discuss] IETF89 starts tomorrow March 2nd in London with ICANN as a host: Some interesting reading and remote participation.

[Seun Ojedeji]

Hello SM and Dr EL

The point for me is that Africa unfortunately came in the internet business
at a time when remote participation/communication is Paramount to
everything and then we blame ourselves because we are not able to maximise
the tool. However we seem not to acknowledge that ietf must have started
with discussing drafts physically before it's participation expanded and
grew so much that a call for remote participation became inevitable. Check
those who participate very well in ietf remotely, you will find that if we
exclude those who participate because it's part of their job description
(which carries the larger percentage) others are either from the region
where ietf has physically held events, OR had the opportunity to attend the
meeting and thereafter became active.... physical events within region
improves awareness, allows participants to be more challenge through the
relationship and  understanding they get. ICANN that held in Kenya and
south-africa with the next that will happen in Africa (hopefully in my
country) has no doubt proven that regional events are helpful.
I am not saying all this because I am trying to look for flimsy excuses for
Africa. However I just like us to recognise the unique challenge that we
find ourselves. While I know some people only attend conferences for travel
experience (which does not only happen to Africans). It does not also seem
accurate to term other non ietf events as talkshops.
Now ISOC(ietf convenor) which has a global reach should continue to make
IETF as such so as to allow Africans develop more interest and see RFCs
development as part of their responsibility as internet users.

Best Regards
sent from Google nexus 4
kindly excuse brevity and typos.
On 2 Mar 2014 10:45, "SM" <sm at resistor.net> wrote:

> Hi Seun,
> At 23:50 01-03-2014, Seun Ojedeji wrote:
>
>> +1 hopefully the IETF will bring itself closer to Africa (to reduce cost
>> of participation). Has any ietf held in Africa in recent time? Well we may
>> argue that it may not receive  participation even if it held; we may be
>> surprised ;)
>>
>
> There has never been an IETF meeting in Africa.  Attending an IETF meeting
> is not considered as participation.
>
> Regards,
> -sm
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/africann/attachments/20140302/00207183/attachment.htm