[ih] Query: When did the IETF change to "everyone can come"?

[Craig Partridge]

In message <20061204171716.B4F2887322 at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>, Noel Chiappa writes
:

>    > From: Craig Partridge <craig at aland.bbn.com>
>
>    > The 5th IETF was, I believe, open to anyone.
>
>Craig, I'm not sure that "open to anyone" is really an apt description; I'm
>not sure that some random person coming in off the street would have been
>allowed in. I suspect it was more like NSF had been added to the list of
>organizations that could send people.
>
>E.g. look at the attendance list from IETF 6. Other than a couple of people
>from Proteon, someone from ACC and U-B, and Len Bosack from the newly-formed
>Cisco (whose email address was at HP!), there aren't any commercial people
>there other than the usual government contractors (BBN, SRI, Unisys, etc) -
>and to some degree, ACC was a contractor too. (Of course, most corporations
>did't have a clue about the desirability of being there - this was, after
>all, 1987...)

Hi Noel, where you say "6", do you mean "5"?

IETF 6 was very big -- doubled the size of "5" and reflected a serious
desire on Phill Gross' part to expand participation.  I recall that 6
was at BBN and one reason was we had a big auditorium (that held about
350 people) suitable for the anticipated increase in size.

Craig