Thanks for the idea!
injecting a slight dash of cold water....
- the actual cost of "Teleconferences and Long Distance charges" in 2002
were USD 82.210 (unaudited) (vs 54.400 for 2001). A significant fraction of
that, but far from all, is the IESG teleconferences.
- we've already switched teleconference providers once to reduce costs,
going from call-everyone to most-people-call-in.
- the costliest part of the IESG teleconferences has been the callout:
international participants (last year, France, the Netherlands, Norway and
Sweden when they are at home, hotels literally anywhere in the world when
they are travelling) are called rather than calling in. You don't want to
discuss with your boss why you had to make a 2 1/2 hour international call
at hotel room rates if you can avoid it......
- it's absolutely essential that one be able to participate in the IESG
telecon from just about anything that one can dial from - we've had
participants on cellphones from trains, in airport lounges, hotel rooms and
other places. So SIP-only won't work for some time yet.
- even at work, several of us have problems with firewalls; about half the
IESG uses Jabber during sessions - the reason many of the others don't is
that they can't get Jabber through their corporate firewalls. So "pure
Internet SIP" won't work for all of us any time soon.
So I think this is a good idea, PROVIDED THAT:
- The SIP teleconference bridge provider is able to provide either
800-number access or callout services to normal telephones in most corners
of the world
- The voice quality, operator quality and call stability is competitive
(yes, we've got the "there's an echo on this conference - can you figure
out who is echoing and fix it" request down to a matter of routine)
A "normal" teleconference provider that *also* allows SIP dialin over the
Internet would probably be perfect. If you have one - send email to me -
PRIVATELY - and I will forward to the relevant parties at the secretariat.
Harald
--On mandag, mars 24, 2003 19:04:17 -0500 Richard Shockey
<richard(_at_)shockey(_dot_)us> wrote:
Like many of us I was moved my Harald's appeal for suggestions for
helping to cut down costs in the IETF.
I certainly endorse the idea of considering Canada or Mexico as possible
sites for future IETF meetings, but I suspect that the weekly
teleconferece calls that the IAB and IESG have represent a significant
line item for the Secretariat.
In case anyone has not heard, SIP is quite capable of handling this type
of task and there are a variety of commercial as well as open source
Client User Agents as well as commercial products and services that could
help reduce this cost.
I'm sure the SIP working group could help the Secretariat identify
products and services that could make this essential function more
productive and operate at less cost.