g'day,
Bill Strahm wrote:
I tend to disagree with you Ross,
First it is not excessive by definition because we are not covering our
costs.
Actually, from Harald's numbers the meeting fee more than covers the
direct costs of the meetings. What they don't cover is the total cost of
operating the secretariat and the rest of the IETF's activities.
One question that seems appropriate to ask is whether it is "fair" (for
some value of fair) to tax attendees in this way to cover overall costs,
or whether there is some more equitable funding mechanism that would
help spread this cost around a bit more. After all, the current system
is optimised for non-attendees. They get the full benefit of
participation, without carrying any of the associated costs...
Second I don't think it is excessive because I know of MANY weeklong
conferences that want in the order of 1000-1700 registration fees...
You're comparing apples and hand grenades. Professionally run
conferences operated by for-profit entities (to pick one example) have
entirely different cost structures. Sure, they're more expensive, but
the IETF doesn't offer professional training sessions, professionally
printed literature, trade shows, etc. All these have associated costs
and put further demands upon the infrastructure.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter if you think Networld+Interop is somehow a
"better deal" than the IETF. What matters is whether the IETF can cover
its costs by charging another $100 per meeting without provoking a
measurable decline in attendance. If that happens, would you then
increase the cost further? Taken to extreme, you only need one person
willing to pay $2.5 million per year and the problem's solved but
somehow I'm not sure this is going to solve the problem in practice...
- peterd
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Peter Deutsch pdeutsch(_at_)gydig(_dot_)com
Gydig Software
"No, Harry - even in the wizarding world,
hearing voices is not a good sign..."
- Hermione Granger
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