Re: [123attendees] Re: [122attendees] Toward Inclusive Participation– Community Dialogue on Venue Selection (draft-attoumani-ietf-inclusion)

[Michael De Roover <[e-mail]>]

On Tuesday, June 10, 2025 12:33:11 AM CEST Deb Cooley wrote:
> If you attended remotely, there are unlimited fee waivers for remote
> attendance.  As Kyle says, the video teleconferencing situation is pretty
> spectacular.
> For in person attendance, there are a small number of fee waivers, but they
> are much harder to get.
> 
> In both cases, a fee waiver has to be applied for.
> 
> So if you did the hackathon in Madrid and/or splurged for the workshop in
> Madrid (or received one of the small number of fee waivers), you could
> attend Montreal remotely on a fee waiver.
> 
> In all of those cases, you need to figure out which working groups interest
> you, read the mail list, review the drafts, etc.
> 
> Deb Cooley

Hi Deb, thank you for this reply! The fee waivers being unlimited for remote 
attendance is quite nice, I'd imagine that to make them much easier to get 
yeah. For the first time attendance (I have never attended IETF before), 
perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea. That way it fits easier into scheduling too. 
For this time in Madrid, I unfortunately already have another flight and stay 
planned. But I have already stuck a pin into this for a while, and would like 
to take the plunge in the not too distant future.

Regarding the in-person fee for the week though (seems to be 1-1.5k?), I think 
it's worth thinking in terms of what else that kind of money can do. It could 
buy a really nice smartphone, or a laptop or such. Some people might prefer 
this over that. But I think in this case, what I'm really after is the 
experience. Is the idea of pursuing a waiver or going out of pocket going to 
improve or diminish that experience? Lots to think about...

This is a bit embarrassing to admit, but several of the people on the IETF 
lists, are people I have idolized before. No, I won't name them! But to be 
able to talk to those people, even just on the lists, it never fails to be 
quite surreal. To be able to have access to those people for an entire week, 
in person, to be able to shake hands with them... That is the kind of 
"backstage" that I would consider the money worth paying for.

I think the most important thing I want to take away from it, is the life 
lessons that each of us cares about technology, how we best build it, and how 
we can grow within it. How even Steve Jobs (whose biography I consider 
somewhat sacred, and got me on this path), initially had to struggle to secure 
his first order of the Apple I computer. It humanizes what eventually became a 
3 trillion dollar company. Building social connections, attending conferences 
and meetings, mutual refinement, ... I want to learn how all of this actually 
works. How do we build "an Internet" anyway?

-- 
Met vriendelijke groet,
Michael De Roover

Mail: [e-mail]
Web: michael.de.roover.eu.org