Hi all, One more observation, which unfortunately I was not able to think before to be made yesterday in the mic and ask for a show hands ... I think it has been clear that this community want to have IETF happening in different regions so frequently as in US, and consequently being fair to others which have traveling issues, and especially with visas. However, right now doing IETF in US or Canada has a lot of advantages for a possible host/sponsor in terms of cost. Hotels in US/Canada, don't charge for the cost of the meeting rooms. They just want to fill a number of guest rooms for the week and get paid for the food. This is a totally different model than in the rest of the world, I guess that basically because the number of hotels that have the space-capabilities required for our meetings, which are available in sufficient number in most of the big cities. Instead, in Europe (for example), the hotels that can host an IETF are very few, and consequently, they are not available unless you reserve them (and pay for the cost) 2 years in advance, which require a planning that hast not been the case for IETF in the last years. Of course, hotels know that and it means they can increase the cost and charge for the meeting rooms (no competition). The obvious result of this situation is that a candidate host/sponsor will always prefer to do it in US, especially for big companies (which typically are the ones that can sponsor an IETF), so we end up being very unfair with ourselves and our wish to do meetings also outside US. Moreover, this is unfair to the hosts/sponsors that do it outside US, as they will pay even 3-4 times the cost of an IETF in US. I think the solution for this is quite clear and I don't think this community can deny it. We need to calculate the average cost of IETF hosted in all the continents, and that cost is the one that need to be put on the table by any sponsor/host regardless of where the meeting is actually going to be hosted. Small negotiation over that cost (connectivity, social, terminal room, etc.) should be obviously in the hands of the IAD/IAOC, because each location could have very concrete needs. Of course, the "average" sponsorship cost should be openly available in the IETF web page for possible sponsors to know it in advance. Seems fair and reasonable ? Regards, Jordi ********************************************** The IPv6 Portal: http://www.ipv6tf.org Barcelona 2005 Global IPv6 Summit Slides available at: http://www.ipv6-es.com This electronic message contains information which may be privileged or confidential. The information is intended to be for the use of the individual(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information, including attached files, is prohibited. _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf