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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) M. Kühlewind Request for Comments: 9501 Ericsson BCP: 239 J. Reed Category: Best Current Practice R. Salz ISSN: 2070-1721 Akamai Technologies

                                                         December 2023

   Open Participation Principle regarding Remote Registration Fee

Abstract

 This document outlines a principle for open participation that
 extends the open process principle defined in RFC 3935 by stating
 that there must be a free option for online participation to IETF
 meetings and, if possible, related IETF-hosted events.

Status of This Memo

 This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.

 This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
 (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
 received public review and has been approved for publication by the
 Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
 BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.

 Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
 and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
 https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9501.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (c) 2023 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
 document authors.  All rights reserved.

 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
 (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
 publication of this document.  Please review these documents
 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
 to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
 include Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the
 Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described
 in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

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

1. Introduction

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

 Given this more full-blown participation option, the IETF has started
 to see an increase in the 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 decrease in the perceived need to attend every meeting
 in person.  Financial considerations may also be a factor.  In order
 to better understand these trends, the IETF started to require
 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 distinction between remote and on-site participants for
 those meetings.  Because IETF meeting costs and other costs still
 needed to be covered, a meeting fee was charged for remote
 participants, replacing the free participation that was previously
 available for all remote attendees.

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

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 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 requires our
 documents and materials to be open and accessible over the Internet,
 it was primarily written with 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 be possible.
 However, if remote participation is provided, there should always be
 a free option to make the process as open as possible.  At a minimum,
 working group sessions, BoFs, and the administrative plenary are
 expected to provide a remote participation option.

 Note that this document does not specify the implementation details
 of the free option and leaves this to the LLC.  At the time of
 publication, an approach to request a fee waiver was implemented.

 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
 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, whether those services can also be offered without
 charge for those who are in need and cannot afford the fee should be
 considered.

 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.  In particular, 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 kept 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 (e.g.,
 Meetecho).  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
 free registration when the registration fee is a barrier to
 participation.  This principle applies to remote participation only,
 thereby providing one free option for participation.  In-person
 participation is not in scope for this document as the cost
 considerations are broader than just the registration fee.

 Changes to the IETF's fee structure or overall funding model are not
 in scope for this document.  As defined in [RFC8711], it is the IETF
 LLC's responsibility to manage the 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" [RFC8711], taking into account agreed principles
 like the one described in this document.

 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 as a
 significant 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 implement additional measures, they should share their
 decision and rationale with the community and consider whether
 community consultation as specified in Section 4.4 of [RFC8711] is
 needed "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 decision about use of the
 free option.

 As discussed in the next section, assessment of eligibility is
 difficult.  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 implementation
 details to the LLC.  Specifically, it does not 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
 minimize both the financial risk and 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 other specific restrictions like the
 number of meetings previously attended or previous level of
 involvement.  The purpose is simply to maximize 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 maximize this financial support.  However, this
 document does not comment on the actual payment structure of the IETF
 meeting fee other than requiring a free remote option.  The fee
 payment structure is set by the IETF LLC such that the viability of
 the IETF and the ability of IETF participants to work productively
 within the IETF can be ensured.

 The LLC is responsible for ensuring the financial stability of the
 IETF; therefore, they 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, because it is likely a sign of increased
 interest and not necessarily a sign of misuse.  The increase should
 not be linked to the number of paid registrations.  In particular,
 the number of paid registrations may decrease for 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 meeting 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. References

7.1. 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>.

7.2. Informative References

 [RFC8711]  Haberman, B., Hall, J., and J. Livingood, "Structure of
            the IETF Administrative Support Activity, Version 2.0",
            BCP 101, RFC 8711, DOI 10.17487/RFC8711, February 2020,
            <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8711>.

Acknowledgments

 Thanks to everybody involved in the SHMOO Working Group discussion,
 especially Brian Carpenter, Jason Livingood, Lars Eggert, and Charles
 Eckel for proposing concrete improvements and their in-depth reviews.

Authors' Addresses

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

 Jon Reed
 Akamai Technologies
 Email: jreed@akamai.com

 Rich Salz
 Akamai Technologies
 Email: rsalz@akamai.com