I believe the classical solution to publishing a mail list is to echo it to
a newsgroup, possibly with moderation [although, who has the courage to
edit this one? :-)] and archive that.
There is another issue lurking below the surface: which technologies best
scale to provide active and passive involvement in the PAB process for a
broad range of the Internet Community, PAB members and non-members. Mail
list work well for small groups, but twenty years ago people started using
newsgroups for more public and larger scale involvement for all the reasons
seen here [inadvertent forwards, "leaks", messy in-baskets, thread support,
redundant message stores, etc.].
Ten years ago in the age of FIDOnet, a BBS would have been the main
alternative. Today, the World Wide Web has taken over most of that role,
which I believe is what Peter Mott's system uses. For those who like their
discussion live, instant messaging is emerging as yet another facet of
public discourse which could be used by the PAB as one of its tools.
I personally think that whatever technology is chosen, it must be more
structured than a single list. Bob Shaw is already breaking out the
announcement functions to separate list, which is clearly a good thing.
Furthermore, an independent voting mechanism separate from discussion is
desirable, irrespective of the policy of when to use it, to keep noise out
of the actual discussion [aka debate in some circles].
Establishing more discussion groups is, I think, also highly desirable.
For instance it would be nice to see a PAB Chair moderated group which
explicitly identifies the current issues at consensus, not at consensus, or
in the process of resolution, i.e. a group which identifies chair
recognized "threads" being debated elsewhere. Seems to me this would be a
most useful support tool for the "rough consensus" process of a large
group. Since no organization operates entirely in the open, it may be
desirable to have more closed venues, and other groups dedicated to more
specialized topics such as DNS rules for pictographic languages, etc.
Certainly the PAB has the collective expertise to assemble a good
infrastructure to support its operation [perhaps too many cooks, if
anything :-)]. Rick and Peter have made good Web based suggestions, and
the Dave Crocker et al speak with authoritative expertise on many aspects
of email and related technologies such as authentication, security, etc.
Perhaps what is needed is a concerted effort, although not necessarily
trafficking the bulk of its communication through this mail group, to
establish a base set of requirements for PAB support technology and then do
a first implementation.
--Rob DuWors
--------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. DuWors <mailto:rjd@csgroup.com> tel:+1.440.255.2869
Connected Systems Group 7638 Aster Drive, Mentor, Ohio 44060
OID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.2671
(iso.org.dod.internet.private.enterprise.csgroup)
CSGroup (SM)
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