On Monday, June 9, 2025 7:09:34 PM CEST Kyle Rose wrote: > I do think the IETF's problem with inclusivity is made worse by the > expensive meetings necessary for access to the hallway track, but that is > merely one problem among many. It seems obvious to me that there will never > be a perfectly level playing field (and we should be careful to heed the > lessons of Harrison Bergeron in our attempts to level it) but lots could be > done to make it easier for new folks with new ideas to contribute. But at > the same time let's not fool ourselves into thinking the barriers are all > within the control of the IETF or existing participants to solve. Getting > involved in standards development to the point where one can make an actual > contribution is *hard* and requires application of time and real effort, > whether you are on a company expense account or not. > > One bright spot is that remote participation has improved the experience > for both remote and in-person attendees by at the very least making it > clear who is speaking at the mic. The remote experience is frankly about as > good as I could imagine short of actual telepresence and holo-Dukes walking > the hallways. But with the excellence of Meetecho in 2025, we may have hit > the point of diminishing returns on remote participation: other aspects of > the participant experience likely have lower-hanging fruit. > > Kyle I've been wanting to go to one of these IETF conferences, but I have to admit, the 1000 bucks price point is quite a bitter pill to swallow when doing it out of pocket. Generally when I go to FOSDEM (which I have been attending since 2016), I basically just buy that year's shirt and a couple of beers, alongside the train tickets to get there. All things considered, probably something like 50 euro? Well, that and maybe a hotel, but all of Brussels is consistently over capacity for those weekends. Easier to just take a train back home for the night. For the IETF conferences meanwhile, I'll have to go by plane (which is fine), and probably stick to Madrid or maybe Dublin. But Dublin would apparently have a visa requirement that I'm not really familiar with. So far I only fly regularly within the EU. I do like that the hackathons are free (if memory serves), it really adds to that crowd-sourced spirit that I've gotten accustomed to from FOSDEM. For the first time going to an IETF conference, I think I'll start with just that to test the waters. After that though, doing a one-time splurge.. why not. But even if I do manage to start a business by that time, it would just be a business expense in accounting at best. Much easier when it's a big corporate employer footing the bill, that much is for sure... I remember even for the LPI exams I took at FOSDEM (where they are 50% off), most of my peers were paying for it through their employers as well. -- Met vriendelijke groet, Michael De Roover Mail: ietf@xxxxxxxxxxxx Web: michael.de.roover.eu.org
