Maybe it's not my place to say so, but I am distressed by the recent
acrimony between the two of you, and I suspect I am not the only one.
Perhaps you have received some private messages. Let me just give you some
short thoughts.
Eberhard is rightly concerned about whether the "inner" workings of the
dnso.org group is receiving sufficient input from all the members, not least
so because Amadeu (among others) has some baggage that he is carrying around
from his participation in POC/CORE. It is not beyond reason that someone
who does not know Amadeu might be concerned that he is taking shortcuts,
failing to consult all interested parties at every turn, and in general
guiding us to a result that might not be ideal for some of us. And to a
certain extent I think that is true. Perhaps Amadeu has been working so
hard for so long that he has lost patience with all the frankly hostile mail
from true believers who think that POC/CORE is the anti-christ. I
nonetheless believe that our only hope of getting anywhere, long-term, is to
be completely transparent. I would like to see all "team" meetings
(drafting team, transition team, etc.) minuted and published. There really
is nothing sinister going on at these things, I've been to them, so what's
the problem? If there is something that people need to discuss privately,
let them discuss it privately. If there are people who are so ashamed of
their views that they are afraid to let them be known publicly, then let
them go elsewhere. This country club is not allowed to be segregated. In
this particular I share Eberhard's views, as I construe them.
But I know, through long experience of working with him -- and against
him -- that Amadeu is a very honorable man. He is not running anything so
much as he is volunteering his time and effort -- a very considerable effort
and I'm sure a lot of time -- to fill a vacuum. Someone has to co-ordinate
the thing, and I don't see anyone else of his abilities coming forward. He
has no pride of ownership, and I have seen him again and again cede power to
get things going; in fact, he encourages participation by anyone with
something to offer. I have also seen him gracefully forego his own
preferences wPhen a majority disagree. I don't want him to resign, I am
appalled to think what would happen if he disappeared off the scene. He is
a tremendously valuable contributor.
Let's keep our eye on the ball. Again, I would like to see all meetings,
even informal ones, minuted and published, so that we can get beyond the
suspicions. It would allow us all to advocate what we want without fear of
being accused of secret power-grabbing. What we all want, I believe, is
self-regulation. There are a lot of sneering powers who look at all of us
as dangerous amateurs, and I would hate to prove them right.
Antony