[ripe-list] [comms] It's 2018, why are the RIPE hotels still using "booking forms"??

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: olejacobsen at me.com
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
> <meetings at ripe.net>.
> 
> 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: olejacobsen at me.com
> > Skype: organdemo
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
>