Re: IETF Meeting Venue Selection Criteria

I think we should expect a working environment that
enables us to do our business withour too much hassle.
For instance, toughness of visa criteria and/or length
of process, excluded contributors are factors. I wouldn't
consider just the need to apply for a visa as a show
stopper, however.  The difficult part is that there's always
some issues, so we need to decide how much trouble
we can live with. My take is that the rotation of locations
solves much of the problem. Maybe we could even more
of that than we do now. Other than that, we need
to monitor the number of folks who can not come due
to length of process or refusal to grant visas.

Other erquirements: Ability to VPN/SSH back home is needed.
Need to be able to discuss freely within the meeting (including,
e.g., discussion of security vulnerabilities). Unrestricted
local participation is needed too, imho, because one of
the reasons that we go to different places is to attract
more participants.

Freedom of expression is another matter, and would be slippery
slope indeed. I think in most cases we would be better off
being open and constructive, and helping more people understand
what our views are than to refuse contact.

--Jari

Ole Jacobsen wrote:

>The visa requirements one would probably prevent us from meeting in the 
>US, some will consider this a "feature" :-)
>
>The "restrictions on freedom of expression" is a little more tricky and
>one could argue that the IETF should not be in the business of trying to
>change policy at that level. China comes to mind as a place we could not
>go by this rule, but a lot of people seem to belive that "constructive
>engagement" is more successful than boycott.
>
>Singapore is often held up as a place with lots of restrictions and rules, 
>but for attending a conference or meeting the rules are frankly "invisible"
>for most practical purposes.
>
>This is a slippery slope indeed. Countries that ban crypto....
>
>Should we really go down this path?
>
>Ole
>
>Ole J. Jacobsen 
>Editor and Publisher,  The Internet Protocol Journal
>Academic Research and Technology Initiatives, Cisco Systems
>Tel: +1 408-527-8972   GSM: +1 415-370-4628
>E-mail: ole@cisco.com  URL: http://www.cisco.com/ipj
>
>
>
>On Fri, 14 Oct 2005, Melinda Shore wrote:
>
>  
>
>>On 10/14/05 11:58 AM, "Avri Doria" <avri@acm.org> wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>- MUST NOT be held in a country whose visa requirements are so
>>>stringent as to make it impossible or even extremely difficult for
>>>some participant to attend.
>>>
>>>- MUST NOT be held in a country with restrictions on freedom of
>>>expression, especially if these extend to the blocking of web sites
>>>or any other censuring of personal communications.
>>>
>>>- MUST NOT be held in a country were local participants would be
>>>under pressure to support national technical policies on threat of
>>>imprisonment or other punitive actions, for their opinions.
>>>
>>>- MUST NOT be held in a country were local participants would need
>>>government approval to attend.
>>>      
>>>
>>Those are great criteria.  I agree that we need to focus on
>>actual impediments to participation rather than personal
>>preferences.
>>
>>Melinda
>>
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>>    
>>
>
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