Open Participation Principle regarding Remote Registration Fee
draft-ietf-shmoo-remote-fee-06

Network Working Group                                       M. Kühlewind
Internet-Draft                                                  Ericsson
Intended status: Best Current Practice                           J. Reed
Expires: 7 September 2023                                        R. Salz
                                                                  Akamai
                                                            6 March 2023

     Open Participation Principle regarding Remote Registration Fee
                     draft-ietf-shmoo-remote-fee-06

Abstract

   This document outlines a principle for open participation that
   extends the open process principle defined in RFC3935 by stating that
   there must be a free option for online participation to IETF meetings
   and, if possible, related IETF-hosted events over the Internet.

Status of This Memo

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 7 September 2023.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Principle of Open Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Financial Impact  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Considerations on Use and Misuse of a Free Participation
           Option  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   Remote participation for IETF in-person meetings has evolved over
   time from email-only to live chat and audio streaming, and,
   subsequently, to a full online meeting system that is tightly
   integrated with the in-room session and enables interactive
   participation by audio and video.  Remote participation has
   historically been free for remote attendees.

   Given this more full-blown participation option, the IETF has started
   seeing an increasing number of remote participants.  This increase
   can be explained by the ease with which new participants can join a
   meeting or only attend selected parts of the meeting agenda, and also
   by a less strongly perceived need to attend every meeting in person,
   due to either financial reasons or other circumstances.  In order to
   better understand these trends, the IETF started requiring
   registration for remote participation, still without any registration
   fee applied.

   With the move to fully online meetings in 2020 and 2021, however,
   there was no longer a distinction between remote and on-site
   participants for those meetings.  Since IETF meeting costs and other
   costs still had to be covered, a meeting fee was charged for remote
   participants, eliminating the free remote participation option (for a
   time).

   The introduction of a fee for remote participation raised concerns
   about the potential impact on both, those who regularly remotely
   attend IETF meetings and those people considering attending an IETF
   meeting for the first time.  In both cases, even a small registration
   fee can be a barrier to participation.

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2.  Principle of Open Participation

   This document outlines the principle of open participation that the
   IETF Administration LLC (IETF LLC) is expected to incorporate into
   decisions about the registration fee structure for remote
   participation.

   The principle this document states is simple: there must be an option
   for free remote participation in any IETF meeting, regardless of
   whether the meeting has a physical presence.  Related events
   collocated with an IETF meeting are part of the IETF's open process
   [RFC3935] and are encouraged to follow this principle as well, if
   they offer remote participation at all.

   This principle aims to support the openness principle of the IETF as
   defined in [RFC3935]:

   "Open process - any interested person can participate in the work,
   know what is being decided, and make his or her voice heard on the
   issue.  Part of this principle is our commitment to making our
   documents, our WG mailing lists, our attendance lists, and our
   meeting minutes publicly available on the Internet."

   While RFC3935 explicitly notes that this principle includes a
   requirement to open basically all our documents and material and to
   make them accessible over the Internet, it was written with mainly
   having email interactions in mind when talking about participation.
   This document extends this principle to explicitly cover remote
   participation at meetings.  Particularly in this context, openness
   should be seen as open and free.

   This document does not stipulate that all IETF meetings or related
   IETF events must have a remote participation option, because there
   could be technical or other reasons why that might not always be
   possible.  This document rather states that if remote participation
   is provided, there should always be a free option to make the process
   as open as possible.  Having said that, it is of course strongly
   anticipated that at least all working group sessions as well as BoFs
   and the administrative plenary of an IETF meeting provide an option
   for remote participation.

   Moreover, in order to fully remove barriers to participation, any
   free registration option must offer the same degree of interactivity
   and functionality available to paid remote participants.
   Specifically, it must not be possible to identify participants that
   used the free option.  However, of course this does not mean that all
   services must be provided for free to participants using the free
   registration option, but only those services that are provided as

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   part of the regular registration.  Offering additional services to a
   subset or all participants at an additional charge is still possible,
   e.g. if special needs are required.  However, to promote inclusivity,
   it should also be considered if those services can also be offered
   without charge for those in need and who cannot afford the fee.

   Further, the free option must be clearly and prominently listed on
   the meeting website and registration page.  If the free option
   requires additional registration steps, such as applying for a fee
   waiver, those requirements should be clearly documented.
   Particularly, to avoid any potential negative implications on
   inclusivity, any personal information that is collected with respect
   to the use of the free remote participation option must be held
   confidential.

3.  Financial Impact

   Fully online meetings as well as remote participation incur expenses,
   as do other services that the IETF provides.  This includes items
   such as mailing lists, document access via the datatracker or other
   online platforms, as well as support for videoconferencing, like use
   of Meetecho and others.  Meeting fees are a way to distribute these
   and other operating costs of the IETF among participants, even though
   they do not fully offset the costs of either holding the meeting or
   operating the IETF.  As such, the intention of this document and the
   principle stated herein is not to make remote participation free for
   everyone, but to always offer a free remote option that enables
   remote participation without any barriers other than the application
   for the free registration itself for those where the registration fee
   is a barrier for participation.  This principle applies to remote
   participation only, providing thereby one free option for
   participation.  In-person participation is not in scope for this
   document as the costs considerations are broader than just the
   registration fee.

   It is not in scope for this document to make suggestions for changing
   the IETF's fee structure or overall funding model.  As defined in the
   RFC871 it is the IETF LLC's responsibility to manage IETF's finances
   and budget and as such "[t]he IETF LLC is expected to act responsibly
   so as to minimize risks to IETF participants and to the future of the
   IETF as a whole, such as financial risks."  Further, it is the
   responsibility of the IETF LLC Board "to act consistently with the
   documented consensus of the IETF community" [RFC871], taking agreed
   principles like the one proposed in this document into account.

   If unlimited free remote participation is determined to adversely
   affect financial sustainability of the IETF e.g. if the number of
   paying participants or the cost of free participation emerges to be a

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   signification factor, the LLC is expected to implement additional
   measures to manage these costs.  This document does not and cannot
   restrict the LLC in its financial responsibility and therefore does
   not impose any limitation on the use of appropriate measures.  If the
   LLC decides to do this, they should make their decision and rationale
   known to the community and consider community consultation as
   specified in Section 4.4 of RFC8711 in oder "to obtain consensus-
   based community input on key issues".  Further, they should describe
   the implemented process in sufficient detail for participants to make
   an informed decsion about the use of the free option.

   As discussed in the next section, assessment of eligibility is
   difficult and consequently any limit on the number of available free
   registrations, which likely requires an assessment of eligibility,
   can cause unfairness and negatively impact openness which should be
   considered seriously in any LLC decision.  As such, this document
   defines the principle of free participation but leaves room for
   choices in the implementation by the LLC.  Specifically, it cannot
   provide guidance on appropriate measures against misuse as any
   measures need to be adapted to the specific problem in a specific
   situation in order to minimise both the financial risk as well as its
   impact on openness and inclusivity.

4.  Considerations on Use and Misuse of a Free Participation Option

   This document does not provide specific requirements on when it is
   appropriate for an IETF community member to use or not use the free
   option to remotely attend a meeting.  The purpose of the free option
   is to enable everybody who is interested in participation to join
   meetings without the meeting fee imposing a financial barrier.  These
   cases cannot be limited to a certain group, like students or "self-
   funded" participants, nor to any specific other restrictions like the
   number of meetings previously attended or previous level of
   involvement.  The purpose is simply to maximise participation without
   barriers in order to make the standards process as open as possible.

   It is expected that participants who have financial support to use
   the paid regular registration option will do so.  Paying a
   registration fee is a way for their sponsor to support the
   sustainability of the IETF.  For example, a higher late payment
   charge can be used to maximise this financial support.  However, this
   document does not comment on the actual payment structure of the IETF
   meeting fee other than the requirement for a free option.  The fee
   payment structure is set the by the IETF LLC such that the viability
   of the IETF and the need of IETF participants to work productively
   within the IETF can be warranted.

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   The LLC is responsible to ensure the financial stability of the IETF
   and therefore should monitor trends in the use of the free
   participation option that could endanger the viability of the IETF
   and, if necessary, manage the associated costs.  Aggregated data on
   the number and percentage of free registrations used should be
   published, as this will permit analysis of the use and change in use
   over time of the free registration option without revealing personal
   information.

   As the principle defined in this document aims to promote openness
   and thereby enhance participation, an increase in use of free
   registrations is a success and likely a sign of increased interest
   and not necessarily a sign of misuse, specifically as long as the
   number of paid registrations stays reasonably stable.  If the number
   of paid registrations decreases, however, this can be due to various
   reasons other than misuse, such as restrictions on travel to physical
   meetings due to cost savings or environmental reasons, general cost
   savings and lesser focus on standardization work, or simply loss of
   business interest.  Such trends can impact the sustainability of the
   IETF due to its dependency on meetings fees to cross-finance other
   costs, independent of use of the free registrations.

5.  Security Considerations

   This document introduces no new concerns for the security of Internet
   protocols.

6.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

7.  Acknowledgments

   Thanks to everybody involved in the shmoo working group discussion,
   esepcially Brian Carpenter, Jason Livingood, Lars Eggert, and Charles
   Eckel for proposing concrete improvements and their in-depth reviews.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC3935]  Alvestrand, H., "A Mission Statement for the IETF",
              BCP 95, RFC 3935, DOI 10.17487/RFC3935, October 2004,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3935>.

8.2.  Informative References

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   [RFC871]   Padlipsky, M., "Perspective on the ARPANET reference
              model", RFC 871, DOI 10.17487/RFC0871, September 1982,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc871>.

Authors' Addresses

   Mirja Kühlewind
   Ericsson
   Email: mirja.kuehlewind@ericsson.com

   Jon Reed
   Akamai
   Email: jreed@akamai.com

   Rich Salz
   Akamai
   Email: rsalz@akamai.com

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