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On IETF Funding

2003-03-19 02:16:14
            Since it has come to pass that the IETF can no longer support 
itself by its current methods of funding, the question of how it is to be 
funded in the future has been raised.  In all likelihood many realize the 
importance of this question, it is also probable that many do not and so, I 
will share my views on the subject.

 

            An organization is defined in no small part by the entities which 
support its existence, both with their time and, monetarily.  No matter what 
the original intent, whoever provides funding for the IETF will gain some 
control over us.  Even if the control aspect could be avoided somehow, there 
will be an association between the IETF and whomever provides its funding.  For 
the future stability of the IETF, we need to ensure that any association we 
consider will be a positive one.

 

            The possibility of corporate sponsorship has been suggested.  If a 
corporation is willing to provide a meeting site, I see no reason to refuse 
however, direct funding by a corporation, or a group of corporations would have 
consequences we do not wish to bear.  The IETF is not an industry consortium, 
and much of our integrity comes from the fact that we operate outside corporate 
and governmental structure.  Our mission is to create standards for the 
Internet in general, not geared towards anybody in particular.  I do not see 
how we could do this without bias while accepting funding from an entity that 
does not necessarily share this goal.

 

            We do, however, need to address this issue.  If the IETF chair 
thinks we are in financial trouble, we need to do something about it.  While 
increasing the meeting fees or cutting back on certain things would definitely 
improve the situation, I am not sure it would work in the long term, as it 
relies upon a minimum attendance of the meetings, and it is definitely 
foreseeable that non-meeting expenses could grow at a rate that does not 
correlate with meeting attendance.  In the interest of generating discussion on 
non-obvious methods we could use to fund ourselves, I have included a few 
ideas.  

 

            One idea is to ask the Regional Internet Registries if they would 
consider adding a small fee to IP address block leases to help support the 
IETF.  The work of the IETF is critical to the Internet and, this would be a 
way to extract funding for our continuing work from those who benefit the most, 
namely anybody who uses the Internet.  Using this method, the meetings should 
fund themselves, while a small fee on each address could pay for the other 
workings of the IETF.  This would have the benefits of both keeping us 
independent and, ensuring that we continue to have the funding necessary to 
operate.  If this becomes a reality we would obviously need to take care that 
our expenses do not get out of hand.

 

            Another option, which we should consider, is associating with the 
United Nations.  It could be said that we share many goals with the United 
Nations and, they are in a unique position to provide many benefits.  They 
could provide places to hold meetings as well as ensure that visas are granted 
for those who wish to attend.  Funding would likely not be much of an issue for 
them, as the IETF is not an expensive organization.  Another benefit of the 
United Nations is that they could provide a degree of protection and isolation 
from the workings of government and industry which, while it may not seem 
important now, is becoming more of an issue as the internet grows in importance 
and therefore, becomes something which governments and large industries have an 
increasing desire to control.  We would have to work out an agreement to be 
sure that we can operate with autonomy, but this should be well within our 
abilities.  While we may not be ready to do this now, the United Nations is 
definitely worthy of consideration.  Perhaps joining the United Nations as a 
Non Government Organization to provide a trial period for us to assess the 
benefits and limitations of this action is something we should do in the 
interim.

 

            There are many other ideas that deserve consideration such as 
simply asking people for money.  I do not particularly care for this idea 
however, if all else fails, we should at least see if it would be viable for 
the IETF.  Another possibility is to charge a membership fee, although I do not 
know how much more of a burden we wish to place upon members of the IETF who 
are already donating their time.  Perhaps we could sell hardcopies of RFCs, 
although I do not know how many people would buy them, especially since a copy 
can be obtained free of charge online.  The list of possibilities is extremely 
long.

 

            There are many ways in which we could generate the funding 
necessary to the IETF, and I encourage anyone with an idea they think is viable 
to share it.  I do wish to ask that we consider the implications of any method 
we choose.  We should be very careful during this process not to choose a 
method of funding that compromises our autonomy or, which would be seen as such 
by others.  If we are going to expend significant effort on this problem, we 
should also try to ensure that the method of funding we choose is stable, as we 
do not want it to be a recurring theme of the IETF that we are looking for 
money.

 

 

- Daniel Pelstring
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