isabela dijo [Mon, Dec 04, 2017 at 08:45:51AM -0500]:
Hi there,
we can also ask any of the current admins to do it. I just want to remember that this list is not just for folks in countries that speaks spanish and pt tho. so if we start adding descriptions in other languages we should be more inclusive because the south of the Equator line is quite big :)
Well, the list/working group should then first work on its scope. I do not think that a "Global South" definition matches "South of the Equator". I also don't think a "South of the Equator" list makes _any_ sense. Oh, and South of the Equator we would need to have English as a first-class language anyways (most of Southern African countries, Australia, New Zealand, and many of Oceania's countries...). Indonesia is definitively _not_ a small country (has the same population as Brazil), but is located just on the Equator... And, of course, Southern African countries have many local Bantu- and Zulu-derived (as well as non-related languages, such as Xhosa languages that should be considered)...
There are many issues in common, yes, to countries South of the Equator. But cultural divides are just too deep; at least Latin America has a shared culture that allows closeness (such as what we just saw this weekend in Chile, with people seamlessly working together from Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, and don't know if others).
When I was to DebConf in South Africa last year, we had some (although few) participants from Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Botswana — I don't dare to say there is a "pan-Africanity", but it could at least make sense. And, again, for DebConf in 2018 (to be held in Taiwan) we are expecting to receive participation from East Asian countries.
There are several world regions that naturally "flock" together. While a "Global South" working group has a nice ring to it, it excludes and splits needlessly based on strict-geographical lines, and becomes an unnatural line.
Again, I would suggest the currently active group to coalesce as a "LatAm" group or something like that.