On 14/4/21 15:59, John Levine wrote:
It appears that Nico Williams <nico@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:
Fernando has pointed out repeatedly that ISOC used to have a sponsorship
program for participants from economically disadvantaged countries, and
that this program has been terminated.
It wasn't working.
And that didn't seem to matter. I did report why I thought the program
was failing, quite a few times, and also provided suggestions. -- but no
changes.
Looked like the goal was having a program, in itself, rather than having
a program to achieve a goal. (i.e., as if there was a box to tick).
The people would come to a meeting but then
wouldn't write I-Ds or continue to engage with the IETF. In one
particularly unfortunate case, the person didn't even speak English
and somehow the selection process missed that. We want to resume it
with a selection process that finds people who can benefit from IETF
meetings and are likely to be ongoing IETF contributors.
There are lots of aspects involved.
* Selection:
Granting a fellowship to people who don't have a clue about the IETF,
and didn't bother to have it, is a non-starter. At the very least,
there should be proven technical participation.
* Clear expectations out of the program:
There didn't use to be any, other than "sharing the experience with
your community".
* Sustained support
Supporting people to attend *one* meeting every now and then, when
they have no chance to support their ongoing participation over time
will not help much of a difference.
* Support such people in building a community
If the program finds people that is capable, support them in further
building their communities. -- this can indirectly support their own
IETF work.
* Don't aim to create evangelizers, but rather support local engineers
that can help evangelize via their IETF work.
And: If you want to help a community, rather than tell them what you
think they need, ask them how they think you can help them.
Just my two cents,
--
Fernando Gont
e-mail: fernando@xxxxxxxxxxx || fgont@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PGP Fingerprint: 7809 84F5 322E 45C7 F1C9 3945 96EE A9EF D076 FFF1
