On 6 Apr 2010, at 17:16, Mark Atwood wrote: > Only individual people can be "members" of the IETF. And "membership" is mostly defined as "who shows up on the mailing list" and "who shows up at the meetings". > > There have been many cases in the history of the IETF where well known members who are in the middle of writing standards or of chairing various important working groups, who have worked for well-known large companies, will change employers, to other companies, to startups, or to personal sabbaticals switch around between industry, academia, research, and government, and this will not, does not, and should not, affect their position inside the IETF at all. I don't see any meaningful relationship between employment status and IETF participation. That's all. As a student and as of now unemployed, I have never ceased to be a participant in the IETF, because I have wanted to be a participant in the IETF. And, as far as possible given the necessities of life, I think that's how it should be. We are all a bunch of socialists. :-) In the meantime my next job might well be decided by first my intrigue of networking, and the Internet, and next by my employer's appreciation of these same principles. Until then, my ongoing certification has a lot to do with networking. In any event, it is the IETF's wholly open nature that contributed to my involvement and interest in it, and all of the work and people that do it, so that it's very possible that these principles are why I'm in this field at all. Cheers, Sabahattin _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf