On Thu, Mar 5, 2020 at 8:30 PM Alissa Cooper <alissa@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
One thing that becomes obvious while serving in the IETF leadership is that no-win situations are unavoidable. If you try to make decisions based on objective criteria and take your time to gather data, you get criticized. If you try to make decisions based on anecdotal evidence or take what seems to be the path of least resistance, you get criticized. If you follow the advice of one group of participants, you get criticized by a different group that disagrees. It can seem like an endless, thankless torrent of messages telling you that no matter what you do, it’s wrong and it isn’t good enough.
So I’d like to say thank you to everyone on the IESG, Colin, Jay, Greg, the team at AMS, and the WG and RG chairs for all they’ve done thus far to help manage the IETF 107 meeting planning in light of COVID-19.. Your work is appreciated.
Alissa
Quite, this is not a decision you should be taking. It is a decision the government should have taken. Cancelling IETF is not going to have a significant impact on the spread of COVID, it only makes sense if there is government leadership and we don't have that.
China did the math: 2% of 1 billion people is 20 million. If this thing takes hold, it is going to kill more people than WWII.
At the moment everyone is focused on Vancouver. But we are almost certain to see most sporting events including the Olympics cancelled and at least one of the US political conventions. I would start looking at contingency plans for the case we are told that 108 and 109 are cancelled by government order.
The impact of government travel restrictions is going to be significant. But that is not going to be the only effect of this crisis. There is going to be a desperate need for technology that allows people to communicate and work remotely. And we are the people who are supposed to provide the open, interoperable solutions.
Skype, Zoom, WebEx, Keybase, Signal etc. are all fine for collaboration inside enterprises. But none of them is a replacement for email or the telephone because none of them can talk to each other. We need a federated, open solution. And the IETF is the place people are going to be looking to develop that.
