On Apr 15, 2013, at 6:50 AM, Ted Lemon <Ted.Lemon@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Apr 15, 2013, at 4:44 AM, t.p. <daedulus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> So perhaps, to reduce the bias, e.g. towards "western white", any system >> of choosing should give preference to the views of those who do not >> attend IETF meetings, for whom judgement is based solely on the >> contributions the person in question is seen to make - via the mailing >> lists - towards open standards and running code. > > We could also all be assigned masks, vocoders and randomly-generated numbers at the beginning of each IETF, and go around wearing burlap robes. > > The problem with your solution is that at the moment it's actually pretty hard to participate in IETF without going to meetings. It's a source of some frustration to me that despite having basically invented the Internet, the IETF still does business as if we were living in the pre-Internet era. Three face-to-face meetings a year is a lot of carbon, and I think it also creates barriers for participation that are only readily surpassed by people who for whatever reason happen to have a great deal of advantage. The degree of good fortune that allows me to participate in IETF as I do is breathtaking in its improbability. Dear Ted, Well said. This speaks directly to what is limiting diversity, costs the Internet should remedy. Although resources necessary to host meetings online are substantial, they pale in comparison with physical presence requirements. I would have preferred if more females were in my all male engineering classes. Lowering cost should reduce average participant age which should offer better gender/ethnic balance. IMHO, diversity is more sensitive to a predominance of those wanting to generate ad revenue with a preference for dancing fruit, at the expense of security. This has introduced i-frames, pdf with javascript, java, and many other types of unauthenticated active and proprietary content that remain major security issues. How can the IETF increase the preference for clean, simple, open, and secure working code? Perhaps registration forms could ask about roles as related to marketing, engineering, management, or support. From this, perhaps needed outreach can be better determined. Regards, Douglas Otis