Dear Martina, (RIPE List copied on purpose)
First and foremost, this was not intended as a criticism of yourself or anyone involved in the planning and running of the RIPE meetings. I am sure I speak for everyone when I say that your meetings are among the best in the industry. I am not particularly concerned about the use of PDF forms even if they are completely unecessary and inconvenient in light of the alternatives, but we (the RIPE community) should be concerned about how "sensitive" information such as credit card details are handled. Adding those details to the form may make it easier for us to make the booking, but it does not make it more secure. (We can have philo- sophical arguments about what the hotel might subsequently handle our credit card numbers some other time). Ironically, most (all?) of the hotels seems to handle online bookings via https:// so it's tempting to propose an engineering solution (aka Small Matter of Programming [SMOP]) to use the same mechanism with some kind of "RIPE Discount Code." But that's an implementation detail. In my opinion, we should be encouraging proper and secure use of Internet technologies so I would suggest that this should be added to the checklist for future negotiations with hotels. Happy New Year! Ole Ole J. Jacobsen Editor and Publisher The Internet Protocol Journal Office: +1 415-550-9433 Cell: +1 415-370-4628 Docomo: +81 090 3337-9311 E-mail: [email protected] Skype: organdemo On Fri, 12 Jan 2018, Martina de Mas wrote: > Hi Ole, all, > > I've spoken with the hotels about this. The hotels don't provide an online > registration link but I can have the webforms changed to include credit card > details. > > When we arranged everything with the hotels a year ago, they had a policy in > place where they couldn't have credit card details sent via email. This > policy has recently changed. > > I expect to receive these new forms soon and will publish them on the website > as soon as I do. > > If you ever have any questions/comments about the processes we use for > attendee administration for the meetings, please feel free to email me at > <[email protected]>. > > Warm regards, > Martina > > Conference Coordinator > RIPE Network Coordination Centre > > > On 11/01/2018 19:13, Ole Jacobsen wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > Every one of the hotels listed at > > https://ripe76.ripe.net/venue/accommodation/ provide PDF forms (not > > even PDF-fillable ones) for the booking. The one I completed wants > > me to: > > > > "In order to confirm your booking, please contact the hotel to proceed > > to the payment: - By credit card that must be given by phone to the > > hotel." > > > > This really should not be the state of affairs these days. > > > > Ole (who is sure he is channeling more people than Randy Bush) > > > > > > Ole J. Jacobsen > > Editor and Publisher > > The Internet Protocol Journal > > Office: +1 415-550-9433 > > Cell: +1 415-370-4628 > > Docomo: +81 090 3337-9311 > > E-mail: [email protected] > > Skype: organdemo > > > > > > > > >
