Hi Colin,
At 05:34 PM 10-06-2020, Colin Perkins wrote:
One datapoint: The RIPE meeting which went
"virtual"? in May had *record* attendance (and no fee).
I'd be interested to see how the RIPE funding model compares to that of IETF.
I'll disclose that I am a Board member of Afrinic
Ltd. The funding model is different from the IETF.
Sometimes I hear the word
"micromanagement". That word is also included in
the document which the IETF wrote for the
LLC. There are matters which a community has
strong views about. I can either listen to the
views of the community or argue that the
community should not discuss the matter as it is
akin to micromanagement. As an example, I could
say that the community does not have any right to
ask questions about the attendance fee.
The second word is "oversight". I could be
silent about the potential issues which I noticed
or share some thoughts/advice for free. As an
example, the "broadcast rights" could potentially affect the "Note Well".
It is very difficult to strike the right balance.
It has been said over the years that the IETF is
funded through attendance fees. The travel
restrictions due to COVID-19 could cause a
potential loss of revenue of $2,311,531 [1]. I
took a quick look at the information [2] which
was shared at IETF 107. Is there a risk of the
IETF facing financial difficulties in 2020? Are
the persons attending that meeting allowed to ask
questions about that? Would it be prudent to
initiate the funding model discussion at that point in time?
Section 7.5 of RFC 8711 states that: "The IETF
Executive Director sets those meeting fees, in
consultation with other IETF LLC staff and the
IETF community, with approval by the IETF LLC
Board." The assumption when that RFC was
approved by the IESG is that a meeting is a
physical meeting. What is the appropriate course
of action when the assumption is no longer
valid? I have not come across those
circumstances before. There are well-established
protocols [3] which could be used to guide the decision-making.
The IETF (used loosely) will be making the same mistake twice.
Regards,
S. Moonesamy
1. It is complicated to come up with a good
estimate as I don't have access to information
which would be required for that.
2.
https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/107/materials/slides-107-ietf-sessa-ietf-107-ietf-llc-report-01
3. The word "convention" would be a better fit.
