Re: Registration details for IETF 108

["Joel M. Halpern" <[e-mail]>]

I agree with Eric in his description.  From where I sit, this seems a 
reasonable decision by the leadership.

Yours,
Joel

On 5/31/2020 5:13 PM, Eric Rescorla wrote:
> 
> 
> On Sun, May 31, 2020 at 1:56 PM S Moonesamy <[e-mail] 
> <mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:
> 
>     Dear Internet Engineering Steering Group,
> 
>     [Reply-To override]
> 
>     At 06:12 PM 27-05-2020, IETF Executive Director wrote:
>      >This meeting will have a substantial agenda but as the cost of an
>      >online meeting is lower, the registration fees have been set at
>      >approximately one-third of those for an in-person meeting.  A
>      >detailed explanation of why we charge a fee for meetings and how the
>      >fee reduction was set for IETF 108 is provided in a separate blog
>     post [3].
> 
>     In 2013, the IETF Chair affirmed that the Internet Engineering Task
>     Force embraced the modern paradigm for standards.  One of the points
>     in the document is the standards process being open to all interested
>     and informed parties.  If I recall correctly, I raised a point a few
>     months before 2013 about the IETF allowing free access to its
>     meetings through the Internet.  I could not help noticing that there
>     is now a required fee to access the next IETF meeting.  Was that
>     approved by the IESG?
> 
>     I took a look at the meeting policy for the IETF.  I never understood
>     why that policy is described as an ambition.  Anyway, as that policy
>     does not specify anything about changing the existing practice for
>     fees, it is unlikely that the decision to charge for online meetings
>     can be challenged.
> 
>     I would like to thank the IETF LLC Directors for acknowledging that
>     the fee presents a barrier to participation and their charitable
>     offer.  I'll leave the charitable offer to those who are in need.
> 
>     It took a decade for the IETF to take this pay-to-play decision.  Was
>     there any discussion about it?
> 
> 
> I don't think the characterization of this as "pay-to-play" is accurate. You
> are certainly free to participate in mailing lists, github, etc.
> 
> What is being charged here is a fee to participate [0] in real-time virtual
> meetings, just as there is one charged for attending in-person meetings.
> 
> -Ekr
> 
> [0] I emphasize "real-time" as I expect that the recordings will be 
> available
> after the fact as usual.
> 
>