Hello, Thanks alot, we need people like you that tell others about IETF and its real culture, or what they can do by using IETF. If people/community can know what they can do, they will participate. Are the IETF management contacting Internet Societies in South America about participation, and what was the response? That information is important to know if the meeting will make difference or not. The IETF management need to do effort as well to encourage people like you are doing. We need experts from South America to be involved and we hope that IETF management contact the region's experts to encourage participation. The experts then will reply to IETF management and tell them their needs and ask to solve their problems of using IETF or problems of participation. Most probably they have already tried but left as I was always thinking to do but did not. AB On 5/29/13, I rob <sistopefuni@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hello, > > I agree with the Idea of a IETF meeting in South America. > > I think it is a way to let the people know about IETF (of course there are > other ways, but this is a good one), to give the possibility to > students/engineers with very good skills to get into the IETF, thinking > that it is going to be published in universities in advance, to give time > to students to enroll to a mailing list and read the drafts to be > presented. > > Talking about my personal experience, I am pretty new in the IETF, but > since I have been involved, I teach my students (from Argentina) about it, > I tell them, that they can participate, that is open, and I realize that > they didn't know it. > > I understand that usually the place is chosen based on the most of > participant origin, but I think a meeting in Latin America is a > good opportunity to give the possibility to people from that region to know > about the IETF. > > Kind Regards, > > Ines Robles. > > ------------------------------ > > I would like to follow up on this proposal. Having a meeting in South > America scheduled two or three years in advance will let us engage > local organisations and individuals on a "project". We did several > activities in the region trying to encourage IETF participation, but > we're going to be much more effective if they're part of a plan with a > strong commitment (and effort) from the IETF community. > > Since this opportunity was announced, there were several contacts and > proposals from different groups asking for additional information, > suggesting things to do, asking for details, etc. We now have a much > more fertile ground to do multiple things. > > Going further will also enrich the IETF work and community (making it > more international becomes a side effect). In this region there are > many engineers, software developers, people at Universities, etc. that > could provide new ideas and energy to the IETF. > > Christian >