LACNIC Blog > Institutional > Open Standards: Why Latin America Must Take Part in the Decisions That Keep the Internet Running
Open Standards: Why Latin America Must Take Part in the Decisions That Keep the Internet Running
June 18, 2026
By Álvaro Retana, Vice President of Technology Strategy, Futurewei Technologies
This morning, before brushing my teeth, I had already checked my email on my mobile phone. Many of you probably did the same. The Internet simply works, so we rarely stop to think about how. But that reliability is no accident: it is the result of decades of discussion, of people sitting in rooms around the world to debate, propose, compromise, and build the standards that make global connectivity possible.
What makes a standard open?
When I talk about open standards, I mean technologies that meet four essential conditions. First, they must be public: anyone can read the specifications and implement them, as is the case with the IETF’s RFCs. Second, their processes must be open and verifiable, so that we can trace how each decision was made. Third, participation must be open — no passport, no specific nationality, no invitation, no other gatekeeping requirements. And fourth, implementation must be possible without discriminatory restrictions, even where licensing mechanisms come into play.
These four conditions are what separate a truly open standard: we can use it, see the process that produced it, participate in that process, and implement and commercialize its outcomes. Organizations like the IETF, the IEEE, and the W3C develop standards under these principles, while regional bodies like LACNIC help bring them closer to the region by discussing and implementing them in ways that reflect the realities of Latin America and the Caribbean.
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The process behind the protocol
BGP, TCP/IP, IPv6: these are the visible artifacts, the tangible outcomes. But what is truly valuable is the social process that produced them. At the IETF, we work under the principle of “Rough Consensus and Running Code”: we do not seek unanimity, but rather convergence so that everyone feels their views have been heard. Ideas are selected on their technical merits, not based on who presents them or how many supporters they have.
This openness is what protects the Internet from being captured by special interests. It is also the reason why we must participate actively: if we are not in the room when decisions are made, we risk ending up with standards that simply don’t address our regional or local problems.
Latin America: Underrepresented Talent
Latin America is home to more than 670 million people and ranks as the world’s second-fastest-growing region in terms of Internet users, behind only Asia. And yet barely 3.1% of active IETF participants come from our region. When we look at the data on RFC authors, the line representing Latin America is almost invisible in the charts.
The process behind the protocol
BGP, TCP/IP, IPv6: these are the visible artifacts, the tangible outcomes. But what is truly valuable is the social process that produced them. At the IETF, we work under the principle of “Rough Consensus and Running Code”: we do not seek unanimity, but rather convergence so that everyone feels their views have been heard. Ideas are selected on their technical merits, not based on who presents them or how many supporters they have.
This openness is what protects the Internet from being captured by special interests. It is also the reason why we must participate actively: if we are not in the room when decisions are made, we risk ending up with standards that simply don’t address our regional or local problems.
Latin America: Underrepresented Talent
Latin America is home to more than 670 million people and ranks as the world’s second-fastest-growing region in terms of Internet users, behind only Asia. And yet barely 3.1% of active IETF participants come from our region. When we look at the data on RFC authors, the line representing Latin America is almost invisible in the charts.
That carries two concrete risks. The first is an implementation risk: being passive users who simply adopt whatever others define. The second is a directional risk: losing any real influence over where the technology underpinning our networks, our businesses, and our citizens is headed.
This is not because of a lack of talent. Just look around — the region has no shortage of technical and governance expertise. What is missing is the conscious decision to step up and participate.
Success Stories That Inspire Us
We have concrete examples of what is possible when the region’s network operations community gets involved:
RPKI and route validation: a decade ago, coverage was virtually nonexistent. Today, countries such as Panama have almost 96% of their routes covered by ROAs. LACNIC led this effort, and the other regions of the world followed.
IPv6: the standard was defined 30 years ago, and today it carries 50% of global traffic. Several Latin American countries exceed that average, with deployments above 50% — Guatemala, for example, is around 60%. This has been an exercise in strategic patience: technical experts, companies, and regulators pushing in the same direction.
DNSSEC and MANRS: initiatives in which professionals from the region* participate in governing bodies and help shape practices that the rest of the world adopts.
These examples show that when we get a seat at the table, we can adapt the standard to our own reality without giving up global interoperability.
The Present Moment
Right now, there is a window of opportunity: the transition to post-quantum cryptography. NIST has already defined the algorithms; the IETF is working on integrating them into protocols such as TLS and DNSSEC. Implementation will come later, and it is precisely in this intermediate stage that regional participation can make a difference.
The immediate risk is not that a quantum computer already exists capable of breaking today’s encryption. The risk is known as “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later”: malicious actors collect encrypted data today to decrypt it in five or seven years. If you handle information that must remain confidential until 2030 or beyond, you should already be designing your post-quantum roadmap.
Why It’s Worth Participating
Participation in standards development organizations creates value across multiple dimensions:
Technical: early access to knowledge and the ability to shape a design before the standard is established.
Business: reduced dependence on specific vendors and greater freedom to choose among providers that implement the same open standards.
Government and regulatory: the ability to draft regulations grounded in technical reality, instead of mandates that turn out to be unworkable or that break critical security mechanisms like encryption.
Civil society: assurance that protocols respect fundamental rights to communication and privacy — especially relevant in today’s complicated geopolitical climate.
Academic: international visibility for researchers, and access to global collaboration networks.
A few years ago, the IAB published an RFC on the mission of standards developers: protocols exist for end users. That is the compass that guides everything else.
Getting Started: Concrete Steps
The path to influence is shorter than it may seem. These are the open doors:
Join a mailing list. The IETF has more than 125 working groups; surely at least one of them covers a topic that interests you. It takes only a few hours a week.
Speak up. There is no need to write a thesis. A message saying, “If this protocol behaves in this way, it would have this impact on my network,” is already a valuable contribution.
Get involved in regional and global events. The next IETF meeting is in July, in Vienna, right after the World Cup. Latin America’s IGF will be held in November in Fortaleza, Brazil.
Mentor someone. Helping a young engineer attend a meeting multiplies your impact. Brazil’s CGI is a great model to follow.
Bring someone from outside the technical community. A colleague from the legal department, a regulator, a civil society representative: all of these perspectives enrich the discussions and remind us why we build these networks.
A Call to Show Up
Ten years ago, the IETF held its first meeting in Latin America, in Buenos Aires. The participation data show a clear spike that year. That precedent demonstrates something important: when global forums come closer to the region, participation increases.
But we cannot wait for meetings to come to our territory before getting involved.
The value is not in the protocol. It is in who participates in the discussion.
*For example, members of the MANRS Steering Committee.
