I think this is a summary of the issues people have mentioned that discourage participation from LDCs, in rough order of importance. * People aren't aware the IETF exists, or what it does, or that it has an open participation model * People don't read and write English well enough to be comfortable participating * People are unaccustomed to and perhaps uncomfortable expressing overt disagreement * People don't think they have anything to contribute to an organization that is mostly people from rich countries * People don't have adequate Internet access for mail, or to use the remote participation tools I have to say that I don't see one or two meetings in South America addressing any of these. Given that the incremental cost to the participants, compared to meeting in North America, would likely be on the order of a million dollars, it seems to me very likely that there are better ways to spend the money. For example, if language and net access is a problem, it might be interesting to set up a remote participation center in B.A. during one of the North American meetings (it's one time zone off from Toronto) with screens and cameras, paid interpreters, and a few volunteers to help explain what's going on. R's, John