If we simply charged a high fee for the I-Ds and a very high meeting fee ($10k) we wouldn't have all these documents to read. The attendance would drop so the meeting could be held in a small inexpensive room. The IETF could also charge for the email lists, cutting back on all the messages we have to read. This would also minimize those pesky new RFCs that make things more complicated for the equipment vendors. Alternatively the IETF could NOT use the meeting fees to subsidize the other IETF activities. They would need to find another funding source. Perhaps they could charge for address space? Another option would be to charge several dollars per cookie. I estimate this would generate enough income to solve all financial problems and possibly extend the lives of the attendees. I can't believe this thread has continued this long. Steve Silverman -----Original Message----- From: Suresh Krishnan [mailto:suresh.krishnan@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 3:05 PM To: ietf@xxxxxxxx Subject: Funding (was Re: Charging I-Ds) Charging for IDs will kill innovation. I use IDs to float ideas which may or may not bear fruition. I would not work on these if I had to pay. I also work on things at the IETF than my employer does not sponsor. These things will get thrown out as well. Since we have started slaughtering the sacred cows (free {ids,mailing lists, rfcs ...}), I might as well suggest few more. * Make remote participants share the costs. i.e. charge for live audio/video feeds. I believe this is fairer than charging for ids, rfcs or mailing lists. People who want to participate, but are unable to travel can get these for a lower meeting fee (25% maybe). * Get some kind of corporate sponsorships for supporting free documents (kind of like IEEE get 802) * Cut back on the food and beverages I would be unhappy with some of these things, but at least they still retain the openness of the IETF and are reasonably fair. Cheers Suresh _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf