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Checking references for intended status: Informational ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- == Outdated reference: A later version (-07) exists of draft-barnes-healthy-food-05 Summary: 0 errors (**), 0 flaws (~~), 3 warnings (==), 1 comment (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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