[Eg-oversight-board] Oversight Board Discussion List - Decision Needed

[Dan Scott]

I'm -1 to the current draft of the policy. To me, it seems like a
strange mix of:

* an introduction to a subset of the current mailing lists,
* a statement of facts about how the internet works (with respect to
not being able to really delete messages),
* an over-generalization about transparency and openness (if there is
a conference mailing list discussing fees for various options of
hosting hotels, is that open to everyone or just the conference
committee? Also, the -security list is closed as a matter of policy;
we want to be able to fix the relevant security problems before
disclosing the vulnerability to the world.)
* an explicit statement of expected behaviour, when to-date we haven't
really experienced anything that would warrant a conduct policy. I
suppose it could be a prophylactic measure; but then it probably
should be something separate that covers expected conduct in all
communication channels (email, irc, in-person, telephone, etc). There
are no stated processes that will be taken should someone not act like
an adult.

There are also gaping loopholes. What exactly is an Evergreen list?
Something hosted on an list.evergreen-ils.org or
list.georgialibraries.org domain? What about when people create Google
Groups or fiesta.cc mailing lists to discuss Evergreen issues... are
those not subject to the same policies? What about email forwarding
aliases, like evergreen at sfconservancy.org or
feedback at evergreen-ils.org? Those are not open an transparent, but
they function very much like mailing lists.

Also, where will this policy live if approved? It looks like it would
replace the current "Mailing lists policy" at
http://evergreen-ils.org/listserv.php, only it's a lot longer and will
push the descriptions of the lists themselves further down the page,
given our current structure.

Given that this thread started because we, without prior discussion,
kicked a number of community members off of the Oversight Board
mailing list, I think we should simply apologize to those members for
that mistake and move on. Possibly with the addition of an explicit
statement to the Oversight Board mailing list description that
community members are welcome to join, so we avoid repeating the
mistake in the future.

Dan

On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 8:26 PM, Lori Bowen Ayre <lori.ayre at galecia.com> wrote:
> Can I get a response to my draft mailing list policy...below.  +1 or -1 at
> least even if you don't have time to elaborate (on the reasons for your your
> -1.
>
> Lori
>
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> Lori Bowen Ayre //
> Library Technology Consultant / The Galecia Group
> Oversight Board & Communications Committee / Evergreen
> (707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre at galecia.com
> Availability:  http://tungle.me/lori.ayre
>
> Specializing in open source ILS solutions, RFID, filtering,
> workflow optimization, and materials handling
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 7:34 AM, Lori Bowen Ayre <lori.ayre at galecia.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks for those links Galen.  I'll toss out a draft mailing list
>> policy to get us going....
>>
>> Mailing List Policy
>>
>> Mailing lists are crucial to the operation of the Evergreen Community.
>> The General Mailing List serves as the primary communication for all
>> members of the community and provides a venue for users to help each
>> other use the software. In addition, Evergreen users and developers
>> use mailing lists to coordinate development and the Oversight Board
>> uses a mailing list to manage issues of governance. Mailing lists also
>> serve as a primary channel for working groups to conduct Evergreen
>> business (e.g. Documentation Interest Group, Web Team, Catalogers,
>> etc).
>>
>> The Evergreen community values openness, transparency, and
>> collaboration and seeks to provide an environment that respects and
>> encourages all contributions. As such, none of the Evergreen mailing
>> lists are private.  Anyone can subscribe to any of the lists available
>> at http://evergreen-ils.org/listserv.php.
>>
>> Mailing list participants are expected to respect the stated purpose
>> of each list and conduct themselves in a mutually respectful manner at
>> all times.
>>
>> The lists are also archived archived and publicly searchable.  Our
>> policy is that the archives are not modified except under rare
>> situations where confidential information has been inadvertently
>> shared on a list. Please send a request promptly to
>> feedback at evergreen-ils.org if you believe you are the exception.
>> However, be advised that deleting information in the archives will not
>> make it go away because mailing lists have been mirrored, have feeds
>> and are in the Google cache and other search engine indexes.
>>
>>
>> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>> Lori Bowen Ayre //
>> Library Technology Consultant / The Galecia Group
>> Oversight Board & Communications Committee / Evergreen
>> (707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre at galecia.com
>> Availability:  http://tungle.me/lori.ayre
>>
>> Specializing in open source ILS solutions, RFID, filtering,
>> workflow optimization, and materials handling
>> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 1:20 PM, Galen Charlton <gmc at esilibrary.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > On May 16, 2012, at 4:16 PM, Galen Charlton wrote:
>> > > A couple policies that come to mind are Apache's [1] and Debian's [2].
>> > >  The Apache policy is nicely minimal since it just appeals to general
>> > > netiquette, but the Debian policy strikes me as a good template that's a
>> > > little more explicit about expectations for mailing list participants.
>> > >
>> > > [1] http://www.apache.org/foundation/mailinglists.html
>> > > [2] http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/
>> >
>> > Though I'll hasten to point out that the Debian mailing list code of
>> > conduct, being largely driven by common preferences of open source
>> > developers regarding the formatting of email, has some items like a ban on
>> > HTML email that aren't necessary for our purposes.
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> >
>> > Galen
>> > --
>> > Galen Charlton
>> > Director of Support and Implementation
>> > Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
>> > email:  gmc at esilibrary.com
>> > direct: +1 770-709-5581
>> > cell:   +1 404-984-4366
>> > skype:  gmcharlt
>> > web:    http://www.esilibrary.com/
>> > Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org &
>> > http://evergreen-ils.org
>> >
>
>
>
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