Internet Engineering Task Force W. George
Internet-Draft Time Warner Cable
Intended status: Informational November 28, 2011
Expires: May 31, 2012
IETF meeting attendees' Frequently Asked (travel) Questions
draft-george-travel-faq-00
Abstract
This document attempts to provide a list of the common Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQs) that IETF meeting attendees often ask
regarding travel logisitics and local information. It is intended to
assist those who are willing to provide local information, so that if
they wish to pre-populate answers to some or all of these questions
either in the IETF Wiki or a meeting-specific site, they have a
reasonably complete list of ideas to draw from. It is not meant as a
list of required information that the host or secretariat needs to
provide, merely as a guideline.
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on May 31, 2012.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 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
(http://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
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to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Why is this document necessary? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Helpful information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1. Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2. Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.3. International considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3.1. Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.4. Communications and electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.5. Weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.6. Fitness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.7. Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
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1. Introduction
IETF attendees come from all over the world. The typical IETF
meeting has representatives from in excess of 50 countries. As such,
it is quite likely that a large portion of the participants in any
given IETF are newcomers to the specific location where it is being
held. It is also possible that this is their first trip to the
country or region. As such, they are going to have questions
regarding their own personal travel needs and logistics that may only
be answerable by someone who has either been to the area before,
someone who lives there, and/or someone who speaks the local
language.
While the IETF, its secretariat, and any local host organizations
responsible for the logistics of making IETF meetings happen are not
travel agencies, there is a set of information that most travelers
wish to have while they are planning their trip. This document
attempts to cover the most commonly asked questions and categories
for information. This document is not intended to provide answers to
these questions for every possible location in which IETF meetings
may be held. Rather, it is intended to provide a set of FAQs for use
by the hosts and others who have experience with the area where the
event is being held, so that the questions and answers can be handled
more efficiently than waiting until someone sends an email to the
XXattendees@ietf.org list in the days leading up to the meeting.
2. Why is this document necessary?
In reading this document, one may ask, "why would such a
technologically advanced and internet-savvy organization need such
help? Isn't that why search engines exist?" And the answer is that
yes, we can sometimes find what we're looking for with search
engines, but that results in hundreds of people spending their time
searching, which is not very efficient. In addition, despite the
widely held belief that if it is published on the Internet, it
therefore must be true, sometimes the information that is available
is either inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date, so it may well be
less reliable than firsthand info from someone that has been there.
Also, no matter how good online translation is getting, some of the
most informative sites may be difficult for non-native speakers to
navigate and find information - navigation buttons, graphics, and
other active content are typically not machine-translatable, and non-
native speakers may not realize when machine translation is
inaccurate in a critical way.
For some past IETF meetings, the hosting organization has set up a
special website, usually containing "IETF" and the number of the
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meeting (e.g. ietf75.se [STOCKHOLM], ietf71.comcast.net [PHILLY],
etc). This has been a source of much additional information about
the location, and is always quite helpful. If the host decides to
set up a site like this, the hope is that this document will provide
guidance as to the sorts of information with which to populate such a
site. However, it is by no means a requirement that the host set up
an external website. Further, not every IETF meeting has a local
host, or even a host at all. In these cases, the need for the same
set of information is not lessened, but the IETF will be more reliant
on the willingness of those with experience in the area where the
meeting will be held to share the benefit of that experience with
others. The IETF has provided a hosted Wiki [WIKI] which can simply
be populated with the same sorts of information. This has the added
benefit of having a single location where additional information can
be provided by experienced travelers, locals, and host
representatives alike. In the case where the IETF-hosted wiki is to
be used, this document may serve as a framework of categories that
could be pre-built when the site-specific page is set up, so that
others can begin populating the information.
3. Helpful information
There are a number of general categories of information listed below.
Some of it is necessary for travel, the rest can be considered nice-
to-have at best. All of it has come from actual frequently asked
questions from the attendees mailing lists.
Much of this information may already be available in another form
online. Simply pointing to information already available in other
locations is quite appropriate, but some validation and vetting of
the provided information is greatly helpful so that information
provided acheives the goal of avoiding outdated or inaccurate
information.
3.1. Travel
o Recommended airport(s) for international travelers
o Transit between primary hotels and the airport
* estimated time
* Taxi information
+ credit cards accepted?
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+ Estimated costs for Taxis
+ description of "official" taxis if appropriate
+ printable local-language address card to show taxi driver in
case of language barrier
* Mass Transit
+ English map
+ Where to purchase farecards/tokens
+ nearby stations
* Shuttles
o Getting to/from the conference venue
* same info as for airport transit
o Parking availability and costs for those driving to the venue or
hotel
3.2. Food
It's generally helpful to note whether restaurants require/recommend
reservations, if they have busy/rush times, etc.
o Restaurants, categorized by:
* price
* proximity to venue
+ useful to highlight quick options for lunch breaks
* type of cuisine
+ this is a great place to highlight local specialties and
favorites
* special dietary needs
+ Vegan/Vegetarian
+ Halal/Kosher
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+ a more in-depth discussion of this can be found in
[I-D.barnes-healthy-food]
o Local grocery/convenience stores - for those who cannot find
restaurant options which meet their dietary need
o Coffee shops nearby - specifically, where is the best espresso?
o Bars/pubs nearby
o restaurants/pubs with private rooms or large seating areas for big
groups
3.3. International considerations
o Plug type/voltage - this can simply be a reference to
electricaloutlet.org [PLUGS] unless there are specific exceptions
or details that need to be highlighted
o Health and Safety
* tap water safe to drink?
* areas of high crime to avoid
* common local scams
* smoking rules
+ are most bars/restaurants smoking or non-smoking? Separate
smoking section?
+ Rules on smoking in public places?
+ Rules on smoking outdoors?
o Visa requirements, pointers regarding travel documents
o Languages commonly spoken
3.3.1. Money
o General credit card acceptance in common locations, including any
restrictions (requires a PIN or chip, no AMEX, etc)
o ATM locations near the venue, at the airport
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o Tipping customs
o Currency conversion rate - a reference to a currency converter
site, e.g. Yahoo! [CURRENCY] will suffice unless there are
specific conversion details that one believes to be relevant
3.4. Communications and electronics
o Places to purchase local SIMs
o places to get replacement electronics and accessories (power
cords, adaptors, etc)
o Public Wi-Fi access (outside of hotel and venue)
3.5. Weather
o link to a site or brief info on temperature and humidity norms for
the time of year when the meeting will be held
o this also refers to indoor weather: what is the common indoor
temperature?
3.6. Fitness
o Soccer: If the weather cooperates, it is common for some IETFers
to try to hold a "soccer BoF" - a pick-up soccer game sometime
during the week of IETF. If you know of a field appropriate for
soccer in proximity to the venue, this is useful information to
have.
o Running/walking paths or routes - some folks prefer this method
for exercise over using a treadmill
3.7. Tourism
While this is certainly not necessary information for the primary
goal of an IETF attendee, many attendees earmark a day or two on
either side of the conference for sightseeing, and this is an
opportunity to highlight local attractions. Links to sites
containing information about walking tours, local tourist attractions
and the like are certainly appreciated.
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4. Acknowledgements
Thanks to Dave Crocker, Simon Perreault, Joe Touch, and Lee Howard
for feedback.
5. IANA Considerations
This memo includes no request to IANA.
6. Security Considerations
This document is not a protocol specification and therefore contains
no security considerations.
7. References
7.1. Normative References
[min_ref] authSurName, authInitials., "Minimal Reference", 2006.
7.2. Informative References
[CURRENCY]
Yahoo!, "Yahoo! Currency Converter", 2011,
<http://finance.yahoo.com/currency-converter/>.
[I-D.barnes-healthy-food]
Barnes, M., "Healthy Food and Special Dietary Requirements
for IETF meetings", draft-barnes-healthy-food-04 (work in
progress), October 2011.
[PHILLY] Comcast, "IETF 71 Philadelphia microsite", 2008,
<http://ietf71.comcast.net>.
[PLUGS] electricaloutlet.org, "Reference site for plug types by
location", 2011, <http://electricaloutlet.org/>.
[STOCKHOLM]
.se, "Internet Wayback Machine version of ietf75.se",
2009, <http://web.archive.org/web/20100812231105/http://
www.ietf75.se/>.
[WIKI] IETF, "IETF hosted meeting-specific Wiki pages", 2011, <ht
tp://www.ietf.org/registration/MeetingWiki/wiki/doku.php>.
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Author's Address
Wesley George
Time Warner Cable
13820 Sunrise Valley Drive
Herndon, VA 20171
US
Phone: +1 703-561-2540
Email: wesley.george@twcable.com
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