On Oct 26, 2004, at 5:56 PM, Matthew Elvey wrote:
> This scheme would put excessive power in the hands of the few: the
> Chairs, who are appointed (indirectly) by the elite few who can pay
> non-trivial sums of money to attend lots of IETF meetings, such sums
> generally provided by large corporations with entrenched interests.
Do you attend the IETF meetings on a regular basis? I ask this because
at the IETF meetings I attend I have met a non-trivial number of people
who work for non-profits, government agencies, academic institutions,
and one-man consulting shops. I am good friends with several
individuals who paid their own way to IETF meetings while unemployed,
including trips abroad. While funding trips to the IETF requires real
money, characterizing those who do as the "elite few" is a
mischaracterization.
Here's an additional data point: Back in the days when MIME was under
development I paid my way to most of the meetings out of my own pocket since
the college I was working for at the time was uninterested in funding the work.
Subsequent to that I worked for a small company, which paid for my attendance
on a regular basis. And since going to work for a large company, I've found my
ability to attend meetings to be markedly diminished due to a variety of
factors.
Ned