A question arose on the RFC-interest list, I observed that 20 years ago I was one of the youngest IETF participants and 20 years later that still seems to be the case.
I see some grad students and some postdocs in their 20s but not as many as I think there should be. By now at least a third of the organization should be younger than me, preferably half. That is certainly not what I see when I attend IETFs. And yes, the lack of women is also highly noticeable. If this is the case it should worry us greatly. But first I think we need to determine if it is the case or not. I suggest an optional demographic survey of participants in the next IETF meeting to be repeated at regular intervals (no more than 5 years apart). People can argue about process, RFC formats and governance but it should be beyond argument that any institution that cannot recruit younger members is going to die. -- Website: http://hallambaker.com/
