R. e: ITU document server now costs money

[Dave Crocker <[e-mail]>]

At 6:18 AM 7/26/95, Jeffrey I. Schiller wrote:
>At 6:07 7/26/95, Vinton G. Cerf wrote:
>>what we would have to "charge" if we had to recover the
>>administrative costs of the editing and secretariat functions
...
>Even contemplating doing this is probably a bad idea. I believe that the

        I agree completely that we must not charge for access to the
documents.  However, there probably IS a constructive path we can follow:

        At the moment, the IETF has no insight into the costs of its
operation or the operation of related services such as IANA.  (There have
been some IESG discussions, in the past and perhaps more recently, but not
open IETF discussions.)  What I think WOULD be helpful is for an IETF
budget to be formulated and the current cost-recovery basis to be listed.

        To the extent that we want to consider alternative recovery
mechanisms, that's fine, though I strongly concur with Jeff's view on NOT
charging for documents.  To date the IETF community has taken a stance of
benign neglect about its finances.  Someone has been paying, so let's not
worry about it.  The problem is that there is some cost to this.  My own
pet peeve is the continuing view that the US government "dominates" the
IETF.  Well, it DOES fund the operation.  (Sorry, folks.  If you think that
your attendance fee covers IETF costs, it doesn't.)

        All of this, however, requires that the IETF community express an
interest in the economics of its operation...

d/

--------------------
Dave Crocker                                                [phone]
Brandenburg Consulting                                fax:  [phone]
675 Spruce Dr.                                       page:  [phone]
Sunnyvale, CA  94086 USA                           [e-mail]