Eric Rosen wrote:
There is no objective way to identify 'primary contributors' other than by
assuming the regular attendees are also contributors.
This is simply silly. It's not much of a secret, in any WG, who does the
work and who comes to listen.
I didn't say it's a secret. But it's subjective. And listening is a useful
activity if it carries information back to future implementers.
We've tried looking at how many local first-time attendees from (say)
Korea later became regular attendees but the data are hard to state in any
meaningful way and the time constants are long (years).
This is a somewhat round-about way of saying that you have no data to
support your position.
I don't have a position. We're discussing what our criteria should be.
I'm telling you that the data are hard to interpret.
We certainly know that going a long way from most places,
as we did in Adelaide, impacts attendance significantly -
but my recollection is that Adelaide was a very successful
meeting in terms of WGs making progress.
Obviously recollections differ.
Well, I re-read my trip report from Adelaide to check my
recollection.
By scattering meetings all over the world, with no consideration of the
average travel time, you encourage the creation of a class of professional
standards-meeting-attenders, which is just the opposite of what is wanted.
By holding most of its meetings in Geneva, ITU-T appears to do the same.
income [from local participants] that we badly need.
Well, this is the first I've heard that we want to maximize the number of
people who come to listen rather than to work. Everything I've ever heard
in the past suggested the opposite. If we now want to maximize the number
of passive attendees, I'm sure we can find a way to do it without scattering
the meetings all around the world.
The objective is surely to keep the IETF fresh with new active
participants joining from wherever in the world Internet technology is
being developed or deployed. But we do need the money too, and that
means welcoming listeners in practice.
Brian
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