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2 Internet Engineering Task Force W. George
3 Internet-Draft Time Warner Cable
4 Intended status: Informational March 29, 2012
5 Expires: September 30, 2012
7 IETF meeting attendees' Frequently Asked (travel) Questions
8 draft-george-travel-faq-05
10 Abstract
12 This document attempts to provide a list of the common Frequently
13 Asked Questions (FAQs) that IETF meeting attendees often ask
14 regarding travel logistics and local information. It is intended to
15 assist those who are willing to provide local information, so that if
16 they wish to pre-populate answers to some or all of these questions
17 either in the IETF Wiki or a meeting-specific site, they have a
18 reasonably complete list of ideas to draw from. It is not meant as a
19 list of required information that the host or secretariat needs to
20 provide, merely as a guideline.
22 Status of this Memo
24 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
25 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
27 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
28 Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
29 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
30 Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
32 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
33 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
34 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
35 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
37 This Internet-Draft will expire on September 30, 2012.
39 Copyright Notice
41 Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
42 document authors. All rights reserved.
44 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
45 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
46 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
47 publication of this document. Please review these documents
48 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
49 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
50 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
51 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
52 described in the Simplified BSD License.
54 Table of Contents
56 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
57 2. Why is this document necessary? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
58 3. Helpful information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
59 3.1. Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
60 3.1.1. Transit between the airport or train station and
61 primary hotels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
62 3.1.1.1. Taxi information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
63 3.1.1.2. Mass Transit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
64 3.1.2. Getting around near the conference venue . . . . . . . 7
65 3.2. Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
66 3.2.1. Restaurants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
67 3.2.2. Other Food items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
68 3.3. Regional/International considerations . . . . . . . . . . 8
69 3.3.1. Health and Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
70 3.3.1.1. Water availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
71 3.3.2. Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
72 3.4. Communications and electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
73 3.5. Weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
74 3.6. Fitness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
75 3.7. Tourism and Souvenirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
76 4. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
77 5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
78 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
79 7. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
80 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
82 1. Introduction
84 IETF attendees come from all over the world. The typical IETF
85 meeting has representatives from in excess of 50 countries. It is
86 quite likely that a large portion of the participants in any given
87 IETF are newcomers to the specific location where it is being held,
88 or even the country or region itself. As a result, they are going to
89 have questions regarding their own personal travel needs and
90 logistics that may only be answerable by someone who has either been
91 to the area before, someone who lives there, and/or someone who
92 speaks the local language.
94 The IETF, its secretariat, and any local host organizations
95 responsible for the logistics of making IETF meetings happen are not
96 travel agencies, but they often can and do assist with identifying
97 and hosting the common information that most attendees wish to have
98 while they are planning their trip. This document attempts to cover
99 the most commonly asked questions and categories for information.
100 This document is not intended to provide answers to these questions
101 for every possible location in which IETF meetings may be held.
102 Rather, it is intended to provide a set of FAQs for use by the hosts
103 and others who have experience with the area where the event is being
104 held, so that the questions and answers can be handled more
105 efficiently than waiting until someone sends an email to the meeting
106 attendees email list in the days leading up to the meeting.
108 2. Why is this document necessary?
110 In reading this document, one may ask, "Isn't that why search engines
111 and travel sites exist?" And the answer is that yes, we can
112 sometimes find what we're looking for with search engines, but that
113 results in hundreds of people spending their time searching, which is
114 not very efficient. In addition, despite the widely held belief that
115 if it is published on the Internet, it must be true, sometimes the
116 information that is available is either inaccurate, incomplete, or
117 out of date, so it may be less reliable than firsthand info from
118 someone who has been there. Also, no matter how much online
119 translation has improved, some of the most useful local travel
120 information sites may be difficult for non-native speakers to
121 navigate and find information, because navigation buttons, graphics,
122 and other active content are typically not machine-translatable, and
123 non-native speakers may not realize when machine translation is
124 inaccurate in a critical way. Lastly, while the companies which
125 serve as hosts for IETF meetings often have participants attending
126 IETF, the folks who are responsible for handling the details of
127 hosting an IETF may not be regular attendees. Therefore, this
128 document, especially section 3, is intended to be something that can
129 be provided to host event organizers that may not have much
130 familiarity with the IETF, so that they have a better sense of the
131 information that attendees will find helpful.
133 The format of this document was chosen so that it captures the
134 Frequently Asked Questions, but usually not their answers. This is
135 because IETF RFCs are typically static and infrequently updated,
136 which does not make them a particularly suitable format to contain
137 location-specific information. The questions found in this document
138 are a result of informal review of multiple past meeting attendees
139 mailing lists and the feedback of many individuals, and are believed
140 to be reasonably static from one meeting to the next. This document
141 is not necessarily all-inclusive, but should serve as a reasonable
142 baseline such that a static format like an RFC is appropriate. It is
143 likely that the RFC will need to be revised periodically - a clue
144 that this is necessary will be when, over the course of multiple
145 meetings, multiple additional questions that are not covered by this
146 document surface on the attendees list and start becoming frequently
147 asked questions.
149 The answers to this document's questions are expected to be stored in
150 a location which is more easily updated by multiple parties, so that
151 site-specific information can be refined and updated as often as
152 necessary, thereby creating a living document. There are several
153 options as to where to store the location-specific living document.
154 For some past IETF meetings, the hosting organization or an
155 individual has set up a special website, e.g. ietf75.se [STOCKHOLM],
156 ietf71.comcast.net [PHILLY], or hiroshima-info.info [HIROSHIMA], etc.
157 This has been a source of much additional information about the
158 location, and is always quite helpful. If the host decides to set up
159 a site like this, the hope is that this document will provide
160 guidance as to the sorts of information with which to populate such a
161 site. However, it is by no means a requirement that the host set up
162 an external website. Further, not every IETF meeting has a local
163 host, or even a host at all. In these cases, the need for the same
164 set of information is not lessened, but the IETF will be more reliant
165 on the willingness of those with experience in the area where the
166 meeting will be held to share the benefit of that experience with
167 others. The IETF has provided a hosted Wiki [WIKI] which can simply
168 be populated with the same sorts of information. This has the added
169 benefit of having a single location where additional information can
170 be provided by experienced travelers, locals, and host
171 representatives alike, and is therefore not completely reliant on the
172 host. In the case where the IETF-hosted Wiki is to be used, this
173 document may serve as a framework of categories that could be pre-
174 built when the site-specific page is set up, so that others can begin
175 populating the information.
177 3. Helpful information
179 There are a number of general categories of information listed below.
180 Some of it, such as sections 3.1 and 3.3, is necessary for travel,
181 the rest can be considered nice-to-have. All of it has come from
182 actual frequently asked questions from the attendees mailing lists.
184 Much of the needed information may already be available in another
185 form online. There is no need to reproduce information that can be
186 found on external websites, so simply providing pointers to
187 information already available in other locations is quite
188 appropriate. However, it is very helpful if some validation and
189 vetting of the provided information is performed in order to avoid
190 outdated or inaccurate information. Additionally, because this is a
191 static and location-agnostic document, it's quite likely that some
192 questions are either irrelevant or confusing for some locations.
193 Therefore, "not really relevant here" and "we don't know" may be
194 valid answers to some of these questions. In those cases, it's
195 better to say this explicitly than to simply omit the section, as
196 this will confirm that the information was not simply omitted. The
197 main thing to remember when providing information in these categories
198 is that those traveling to the event have not been there before, and
199 so one should not assume a high level of background knowledge about
200 the area, its customs, etc.
202 3.1. Travel
204 o Recommended airport(s) for domestic and international connections
205 - include the appropriate IATA Airport code(s) whenever possible
206 to avoid confusion.
208 o Non-flight options to get to the city where the meeting is being
209 held (e.g. if there are convenient rail travel options)
211 3.1.1. Transit between the airport or train station and primary hotels
213 Information in this section is especially critical if the airport is
214 significantly distant from the venue or use of a taxi is otherwise
215 impractical or not recommended (e.g. if attendees must use a train or
216 long-distance bus to get to the venue locale from the airport). If
217 train travel options are provided as an alternative to flying, it is
218 recommended that the below list be provided for those options as well
219 (e.g. transit between the train station and primary hotel).
221 o Estimated travel time - this is also important for return travel
222 from the venue to the airport. It is worth noting any
223 recommendations about leaving extra time if airport security and
224 check-in is always busy or there will be significant differences
225 in travel time due to rush hour traffic
227 o Shuttles (if applicable)
229 o Arranging transit directly with the hotel (if applicable) - hotels
230 sometimes provide car service or are willing to pay taxi bills
231 upon your arrival so that the charges can be added to the hotel
232 bill instead of requiring local currency. It is helpful to know
233 in advance if this is common or uncommon in the local area.
235 3.1.1.1. Taxi information
237 o Credit cards accepted (yes/no and which ones, if yes)
239 o Foreign currency accepted?
241 o Estimated costs for Taxis, as well as any rules/recommendations
242 about metered fares vs. fixed-rate or prenegotiated fares
244 o Description of "official" taxis if appropriate
246 o Links to websites or phone numbers for remote/pre-booking Taxis
248 o How to find the taxi stand at the airport/train station
250 o Printable local-language address card to show taxi driver in case
251 of language barrier
253 o Ride sharing - the IETF Wiki usually has a section where attendees
254 can post arrival times and work out Taxi sharing
256 3.1.1.2. Mass Transit
258 Navigating an unfamiliar mass transit system can be challenging.
259 Things that seem obvious to the locals may not be as obvious to out-
260 of-town travelers.
262 o English map
264 o How and where to purchase farecards/tokens
266 o How to use tickets/tokens (where to insert them, get them stamped,
267 how to transfer, etc)
269 o How trains/buses are labeled and how to identify the destination
270 of a particular train/bus
272 o The general frequency of service, and in particular whether one
273 should just go to the station or should consult a schedule first
275 o Which transit system to use for which destination (when there are
276 multiple transit systems in the area)
278 o Nearby stations and how to identify a station entrance (common
279 logo, color, etc)
281 3.1.2. Getting around near the conference venue
283 The same info relevant for airport transit will likely be relevant
284 here, including taxi and mass transit information. If possible,
285 walking directions between the conference venue and the hotel(s)
286 should be provided if the venue is not co-located with the hotel.
288 Additionally, It is helpful to note if having a vehicle available
289 (rental or personal car) is a help or a hindrance in getting around
290 in the local area. For example, it may not be recommended to try to
291 drive in the area near the conference venue due to:
293 o Parking availability and costs
295 o Congestion charges and other restrictions on when and where one
296 can drive
298 o Traffic
300 3.2. Food
302 The nature of IETF's schedule means that food and drink provide both
303 a welcome break as well as a venue to continue discussions with
304 colleagues, either related to IETF work, other shop talk, or anything
305 *but* shop talk. During IETF's lunch break, approximately 1000
306 people are simultaneously looking for reasonably priced lunch
307 options, with timeframes ranging from "grab and go" for a working
308 lunch to 75 minutes for a sit-down meal. When meetings have
309 concluded for the day, the wide variety of attendees means that
310 people are looking for all types of food, all price ranges, and
311 atmosphere ranging from someplace suitable for an in-depth
312 conversation to a table at the bar. The more information that is
313 available about the food and drink options nearby, the better. This
314 information is especially helpful during the first few days of the
315 conference, because the amount of folks looking for assistance from
316 the hotel concierge or other information desk staff at one time tends
317 to overwhelm the personnel available.
319 3.2.1. Restaurants
321 It's generally helpful to note whether restaurants require/recommend
322 reservations, if they have busy/rush times that should be avoided or
323 planned for, etc.
325 It's helpful for Restaurants to be categorized by:
327 o Price
329 o Proximity to venue - It's useful to highlight quick options for
330 lunch breaks.
332 o Type of cuisine - This is a great place to highlight local
333 specialties and favorites.
335 o Special dietary needs
337 * Vegan/Vegetarian
339 * Halal/Kosher
341 * It's also extremely helpful to discuss methods for
342 communicating these needs to restaurant staff when ordering
344 * A more in-depth discussion of dietary concerns can be found in
345 [I-D.barnes-healthy-food]
347 3.2.2. Other Food items
349 o Local grocery/convenience stores - for attendees who cannot find
350 restaurant options which meet their dietary needs
352 o Coffee shops and Tea Houses nearby - specifically, where can we
353 find the best espresso/cup of tea?
355 o Bars/pubs nearby
357 o Restaurants/pubs with private rooms or large seating areas for big
358 groups
360 3.3. Regional/International considerations
362 o Plug type/voltage - this can simply be a reference to
363 electricaloutlet.org [PLUGS] unless there are specific exceptions
364 or details that need to be highlighted
366 o Visa requirements, pointers regarding travel documents - IETF
367 typically provides information about visas via a pointer to an
368 embassy or similar page that has general information about common
369 types of visas, when they are required, waived, etc. It also
370 includes information about how to obtain a letter of invitation
371 should one be required. It is helpful to provide information that
372 goes beyond that, especially if there are known issues where it
373 may be difficult for entrants from certain countries to get a visa
374 processed in the time between when the meeting is announced and
375 when travel must commence. If there are expedite processes, this
376 is a good place to discuss them.
378 o Languages commonly spoken
380 o National/regional holidays, work stoppages/strikes, or other
381 issues which may impact travel or business hours during the week
382 of IETF
384 3.3.1. Health and Safety
386 o Phone numbers to access local emergency services (e.g. 911, 999,
387 etc)
389 o Closest health clinic/hospital facilities
391 o Areas of high crime to avoid
393 o Common local scams, including taxi scams
395 o Hostile flora and fauna and how to identify/avoid
397 o Local air quality considerations - everyone has different
398 thresholds for "unhealthy" air quality, and especially those with
399 health or respiratory problems may need to be able to locate local
400 air quality monitoring information to determine how best to
401 prepare themselves.
403 o Smoking rules
405 * Are most bars/restaurants smoking or non-smoking? Separate
406 smoking section?
408 * Rules on smoking in public places?
410 * Availability of dedicated smoking/non-smoking rooms in hotels?
412 * Rules on smoking outdoors?
414 3.3.1.1. Water availability
416 o Is local tap water potable/drinkable (if not, is it truly unsafe
417 because of impurities or contamination or does it simply taste bad
418 by local standards?)
420 o How does one differentiate between tap water and bottled in a
421 restaurant when ordering?
423 o Are water fountains/bubblers or water bottle refill taps commonly
424 available in public places?
426 3.3.2. Money
428 o General credit card acceptance in common locations, including any
429 restrictions (requires a chip and PIN card, no AMEX, etc)
431 o ATM locations near the venue, at the airport - note whether these
432 accept foreign cards, which systems they participate in, whether
433 they have an English language option
435 o Tipping customs, particularly for Taxis, restaurants, and hotel
436 staff
438 o Currency conversion rate - a reference to a currency converter
439 site, e.g. Yahoo! [CURRENCY] will suffice unless there are
440 specific conversion details that one believes to be relevant
442 o In establishments where foreign currency is accepted either for
443 purchase or for exchange, note whether this is recommended or not
444 due to favorable or unfavorable exchange rates, etc.
446 o For what types of purchases (if any) bargaining/haggling on the
447 price is expected or customary, and if so, customary methods for
448 successful bargaining
450 3.4. Communications and electronics
452 o Places to purchase local SIMs, and types of mobile voice/data
453 service supported, (e.g. GSM, LTE, UMTS, CDMA, etc)
455 o Places to get replacement electronics and accessories (e.g. power
456 cords, adapters, batteries, etc)
458 o Public Wi-Fi access (outside of hotel and venue) including Wi-Fi
459 availability in the recommended airports, mass transit, etc.
461 3.5. Weather
463 o Link to a site or brief info on temperature and humidity norms for
464 the time of year when the meeting will be held, e.g Weather
465 Underground [WEATHER]
467 o If this is an area known for extreme weather, note any amenities
468 to make travel easier, such as enclosed walkways or indoor
469 passages between buildings
471 o This also refers to indoor weather: what is the common indoor
472 temperature?
474 3.6. Fitness
476 o Soccer: If the weather cooperates, it is common for some IETFers
477 to try to hold a "soccer BoF" - a pick-up soccer game sometime
478 during the week of IETF. If you know of a field appropriate for
479 soccer in proximity to the venue, this is useful information to
480 have.
482 o Running/walking paths or routes - some folks prefer this method
483 for exercise over using a treadmill
485 3.7. Tourism and Souvenirs
487 While this is certainly not necessary information for the primary
488 goal of an IETF attendee, many attendees earmark a day or two on
489 either side of the conference for sightseeing, and this is an
490 opportunity to highlight local attractions. Links to sites
491 containing information about walking tours, local tourist attractions
492 and the like are certainly appreciated. If there are events
493 scheduled adjacent to IETF such as music or food festivals, cultural
494 events, etc, attendees are happy to hear about these events as well.
496 Additionally, many attendees choose to purchase souvenirs as gifts or
497 for personal use. In addition to the standard "tourist-trap" items
498 such as t-shirts and knick-knacks, many attendees are looking for
499 items that are locally crafted, local specialties, or otherwise
500 significant to the local area and culture. This is another area
501 where the local area can be highlighted in the information provided
502 to attendees.
504 4. Acknowledgements
506 Thanks to the following folks (and probably others the author has
507 unintentionally forgotten) for their valuable feedback.
509 Dave Crocker, Simon Perreault, Joe Touch, Lee Howard, Jonathan
510 Lennox, Tony Hansen, Vishnu Ram, Paul Kyzivat, Karen Seo, Randy Bush,
511 Mary Barnes, John Klensin, Brian Carpenter, Adrian Farrel, Stephen
512 Farrell, Yaacov Weingarten, L. David Baron, Samuel Weiler, SM, Ole
513 Jacobsen, David Black.
515 5. IANA Considerations
517 This memo includes no request to IANA.
519 6. Security Considerations
521 This document is not a protocol specification and therefore contains
522 no protocol security considerations. However, some of the above
523 items refer to the physical security of IETF participants and their
524 property. This document is not intended to be a comprehensive
525 discussion of physical security matters for IETF attendees.
527 7. Informative References
529 [CURRENCY]
530 Yahoo!, "Yahoo! Currency Converter", 2011,
531 .
533 [HIROSHIMA]
534 Jacobsen, "Ole Jacobsen's Hiroshima info site", 2009,
535 .
537 [I-D.barnes-healthy-food]
538 Barnes, M., "Healthy Food and Special Dietary Requirements
539 for IETF meetings", draft-barnes-healthy-food-05 (work in
540 progress), March 2012.
542 [PHILLY] Comcast, "IETF 71 Philadelphia microsite", 2008,
543 .
545 [PLUGS] electricaloutlet.org, "Reference site for plug types by
546 location", 2011, .
548 [STOCKHOLM]
549 .se, "Internet Wayback Machine version of ietf75.se",
550 2009, .
553 [WEATHER] Weather Underground, "Weather Underground", 2011,
554 .
556 [WIKI] IETF, "IETF hosted meeting-specific Wiki pages", 2011, .
559 Author's Address
561 Wesley George
562 Time Warner Cable
563 13820 Sunrise Valley Drive
564 Herndon, VA 20171
565 US
567 Phone: +1 703-561-2540
568 Email: wesley.george@twcable.com