Hi Mark,
At 12:26 05-08-2012, Mark Nottingham wrote:
I live in Melbourne, and thus must travel for more than 24 hours
each way to just about every IETF meeting there is (the "asian"
meetings are at best 16 hours away, but often more due to routing).
Sometimes, much more.
And yet I don't see you complaining about that. :-) The good news is
that the IAOC decided to have a meeting in the Southern
Hemisphere. The bad news is that it may not be in Melbourne.
You say "public relations", I say it's to encourage participation
from a wider range of people, so this doesn't become a
self-selecting set of blowhards*. This is a primary condition for an
organisation that aspires to set standards, not just a "marketing campaign".
Yes.
Again, choosing three or so locations ignores large parts of not
only the developing world (e.g., Africa, India), but also
substantial portions of the developed world with a reasonable track
record of participation (e.g., Australia, New Zealand, Brazil).
There were 10 participants from Australia and 4 participants from New
Zealand at the last IETF meeting. There was interest to have the
IETF in New Zealand. I guess that it was considered as difficult to
convince the cookie-eating mob that it was a good location.
As much as I fear unleashing a mob of cookie-eating,
hotel-complaining, detail-fixated, t-shirt wearing,
difference-from-America-fearing, beard-wielding,
restaurant-bill-splitting nerd-ninjas on my adopted country, I think
there are very good selfish *and* unselfish
:-)
reasons for the IETF returning to Australia, or appearing nearby.
And going to Brazil or thereabouts, and India, and (eventually)
Africa. Doesn't have to be every year, but once a decade+ is not often enough.
The IETF will likely go to Latin America first. My guess is that it
might eventually go to India. If it ever goes to Africa it will be
more of a political statement than anything else.
Regards,
-sm