Point 2 is exactly my point. Places which should have the best connectivity (tons of international interconnect and PSTN connectivity) can still be defeated by stupid firewall tricks and no host with international PSTN conference services. Conversely, places that North Americans might consider third tier often have considerably better connectivity than one would expect. -----Original Message----- From: Dave Crocker [mailto:dhc2@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 9:54 AM To: Burger, Eric Cc: ietf@xxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Meetings in other regions > Let me relate my *EXPERIENCE* with some interim meetings (lemonade). [I > suppose data is the closest we have to 'working code.'] Meeting held in > Dallas: 9 participants. Meeting held in Vancouver: 10 participants. > Meeting held in London: 14 participants. Meeting held in Beijing: 21 > participants. > > Worst Internet connectivity: London. > > Best Internet connectivity: tied between Vancouver and Beijing. Small nit-pick, on trying to generalize from your data: 1. Since we know that The London metropolitan area has excellent Internet connectivity and bandwidth, the problems you experienced must have been due to the particular meeting site and not the region. 2. For a region that is not obviously able to give excellent service, the key is the commitment by local staff (and government) to make sure it is excellent. They cannot do anything about the lack of fat pipes to the outside world, but they can do quite a bit about fat pipes within the venue and their reliability. 3. Within the constraints of that basic connectivity to the outside world, most major cities are now able to deliver excellent service... given the commitment to do so. d/ _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf