Dear Ramon and all others,
I agree that is convenient to discuss the fees policy of WG6.9 as well as the cooperation of WG6.9 in any activity to be done in some developing country. However, I disagree that a workshop is always just by invitation. There a lot of workshops with an open call for papers, even inside IFIP and more preciseley inside the TC6.
You are right. The IFIP rules say (cf. Event Approval Guidelines http://www.ifip.or.at/events/eag.htm): Workshop (WS): general category for events within a special subject area, organized by a WG for professional/scientific purpose, a restricted and rather small attendance (less than 50), and with unrefereed contributions, normally not intended for publication.
I had the Dagstuhl organisation in mind (where everything is based on personal invitations). Nevertheless it will be not possivle to treat every event in developing countries as a workshop by means of the mere purpose to get rid of the sponsorship fee request.
A WG 6.9 event could even be a seminar (without any sponsorship fee requirement). This is defined as: Seminar (SE): general category for events characterized by special scope, usually organized by a TC or a WG for educational purpose, a restricted and moderate attendance, and with invited contributions, normally not intended for publication.
Best regards Otto