Re: So, where to repeat? (was: Re: management granularity)

[Ole Jacobsen <[e-mail]>]

You said about Prague:

"...[do] folks who live outside of that region not care about the 
additional hop of travel to get to it?"

This gets cited often, and I don't really understand why. There are 
VERY few European cities that are reachable directly from the US (or 
Asia for that matter). Most require transiting some kind of major hub 
(London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam to name a few). There will always 
be exceptions, I am sure you can get to Stockholm directly from the US 
East Coast, but not from the West Coast. I am sure a very large 
percentage of the IETF attendees from the US went through London or 
Frankfurt (or a small number of alternatives) to get to Stockholm on 
the two occasions when we met there.

Since I travel to Norway on a more or less regular basis, I am used to 
(and quite happy to) go through Frankfurt or London, it's just a fact 
of life especially if you factor in the "preferred carrier" (personal 
or corporate). Prague may be an "extra hop," but depending on 
schedules you might well get to your destination (hotel) just as 
quickly as you would for getting from CDG to central Paris or LHR to 
central London.

If we restrict European cities to the ones with direct flight 
connections from other continents, we're really limiting the choices. 
Let's be a little more realistic and consider actual travel "pain" 
from the top hubs in Europe, assuming we can't (always) meet in those 
places.

I do understand that the extra hop does add some cost, which is why
I always consider trains as a reasonable alternative, albeit not a
particularly fast one. For example, the cost for a First Class train
ticket from Frankfurt to Prague was 98 Euros. I am not suggesting
that this is always going to be a reasonable alternative, and I am
worried that the mere mention of "train" on this list may result in
a flame war, but still...

Ole



Ole J. Jacobsen
Editor and Publisher,  The Internet Protocol Journal
Cisco Systems
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