I have been lurking IETF for many years, but it was only after I went to my first meeting that I really understood how the IETF worked and how to really participate. After that meeting I started to send comments, read drafts, writing some initial stuff and arguing. Before that meeting I didn't know how to do it, and how good or bad my comments would be received. I think it might be cultural, but before my first meeting I felt a bit intimidated by the ietf and being flamed by a bad comment. I didn't stop feeling intimidated after the first meeting, it took me a bit more but definitely it helped me to understand the ietf, its community and how to participate. I wouldn't be surprised if it were many people just like I was, lurking the email lists but have never sent anything for the same reasons that I did. Regards, as On 5/24/13 1:18 PM, Melinda Shore wrote: > On 5/24/13 8:07 AM, Lou Berger wrote: >> I personally am a big fan for going to uninteresting locations in their >> off season. Although, perhaps I'm alone in liking Minneapolis in the >> winter as an IETF destination... > > No, not alone. > > At any rate I think that the core questions about participation > are probably more relevant than a run-down of individual travel > costs. I've noticed that some of the posters from South > American countries who've expressed enthusiasm for an IETF > meeting in Buenos Aires have not been working group contributors, > and I'm wondering what they feel the barriers to participation > have been, and what can be done that would make it more likely > that they'd, say, review documents. > > Melinda >