> >> I don't know what "accredited" means anymore. > > > IMHO it should mean "real journalists" in this context. > > That excludes technical experts who play at journalism on > their blog. > > Right, we wouldn't want to encourage reporting by people who > actually know what they're talking about... Huh!? Did I ever say anything about preventing people from writing/publishing anything that they want? NO! Those people who already know what they are talking about do not need the kind of assistance that a press conference provides. > What would the goal of accreditation be? To make sure that the scarce time of the volunteer experts who are taking questions at the press conference, is not wasted. The press has existed in its current form for well over a century. It's a different world from IP networking, and it has its own traditions and its own processes. If a group of people is serious about getting its message to the press in a relatively ungarbled form, then that group of people works with the press in the established ways. That includes press conferences, and special support for accredited members of the press. Even an occasional contributor to a magazine will probable have a business card with a title like Contributing Editor. > > After all, there are > > no restrictions on non-journalists writing anything that > they want so > > the IETF doesn't lose anything by restricting a press conference to > > people whose dayjob is journalism. > > Except openness. Huh!? There are no restrictions on people writing what they want so if some conversations are not open to all, then the IETF loses openness. This is ridiculous because the IETF is full of private conversations, bar BOFs, private emails, etc. That does not reduce the openness of the IETF. The professor explaining TCP in a first year university class does NOT reduce the openness of the IETF. > I would suggest that if the IETF wants more accurate press > coverage, it should, along with managing expectations, > produce press releases. > For most meetings, I don't think the number of tech > journalists that would show up is sufficient to warrant press > conferences, although it might in places like San Francisco. Press releases would be a great idea. I believe that as we get closer to IPv4 exhaustion there will be a surge of press interest in the IETF and that is when a press conference will be useful. Is there a mechanism in place (requests for free tickets?) that would give the IETF some indication that there is a sufficient level of interest to warrant the effort of a press conference? --Michael Dillon _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf