michael.dillon@xxxxxx wrote: |||| Why do IETF meetings have to be monolithic and all-inclusive? || ||| I can tell you why we do - crosstalk. It can be incredibly useful ||| for people from the Security Area to look in on Applications, or for ||| Transport and RAI folks to understand the workings of the layers ||| beneath them and their users, for example. ||| ||| That doesn't make for a "has to", but it seems like a good reason to ||| "choose to", from my perspective. || || I agree with your reasoning. I should have asked, why do || *ALL* IETF meetings have to be monolithic and all-inclusive? || || Smaller meetings held outside North America could be located || in smaller cheaper hotels, and would encourage wider || participation in the IETF. In fact, smaller meetings in || North America would achieve the same ends. || || I'm not suggesting getting rid of the existing monolithic || meetings, but adding another type of meeting that is || smaller, cheaper to attend, and held in cities/countries || that are far from the USA but closer to people who should be || more involved in the IETF. For instance, Pune and Bangalore || India, Moscow and Ekaterinburg Russia, Dalian and Shanghai || China as well as places like Helsinki, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Seoul. || || Note that smaller regional meetings still provide the || opportunities for some crosstalk, even if the variety of WG || choices to attend will be smaller. And it increases the || amount of crosstalk and cross-fertilization between people || who regularly work in the IETF and those who have not done || IETF work because they have not had the opportunity to see || it in action, face to face. || || Note also that RIPE does something along these lines with || their regional meetings having more focus on education. I || expect that an IETF regional meeting would also have to have || more focus on education since a higher proportion of first-timers || would attend. Wouldn't the regional meetings you are suggesting have a totally different focus and be a different type of event all together compared to the main meetings currently? I would expect such regional meetings to have a focus on educating the local public about the IETF and be about increasing participation but not including any actual work on IETF content. Believe such regional meetings would be a great idea as a means to facilitate mentoring of future participants and encouraging new blood into the organization. Darryl (Dassa) Lynch _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf