Re: Registration open for IETF 114

[Keith Moore <[e-mail]>]

On 5/13/22 11:15, Livingood, Jason wrote:

> The fee waivers are currently for remote participation. If someone has no or low income, it seems logical that they will be unable to afford airfare and hotels, etc. In which case they are participating in a low cost remote manner and can apply for a fee waiver.

Those are really not valid assumptions.  I've often found ways to save 
tremendously on airfare, lodging, or both.   Sometimes I had a friend 
living nearby with whom I could stay.   Sometimes the conference was 
within a reasonable driving distance.   Sometimes I have had a sponsor 
who was willing to pay for airfare, or meeting fee, but not both.   
Sometimes with diligent shopping, I've found great deals on travel, even 
if it meant I had to drive a few hours each way to an airport with a low 
fare.  Sometimes I've been able to use frequent flyer miles left over 
from years ago when I traveled frequently.

And remote participation, while certainly better than nothing, is not 
usually an adequate substitute for being there.

I also think it's really easy for people who are funded by their 
employers to assume that other participants "should" be like  them - e.g 
someone who is qualified to participate in IETF will have a job that 
pays for their travel and meeting fees.   But in talking to other 
attendees at several IETF conferences over the years, I've found that 
this simply isn't true.    I've talked to many extremely qualified and 
valuable participants whose jobs really aren't about protocol design and 
whose employers don't really support their IETF work, or only support it 
partially.   (Perhaps people don't always like to say so, though, out of 
concern of being seen as less legitimate by other "professionals" at IETF.)

Keith