Peter and I have discussed this a bit privately in the past. I
appreciate him presenting his objections, and, though I disagree, I
value his integrity in presenting them.
On Fri, Jan 09, 1998 at 07:19:53PM +1300, Peter Mott wrote:
> > That the pab@gtld-mou.org mailing list be continuously archived as
> > of Jan 1, 1998, and that the archive be made available to the
> > public.
>
> I appose this proposal.
>
> Participation in PAB requires a commitment in the form of signing the
> gTLD-MoU.
>
> The PAB exists in my view to represent the needs of these signatories
> and no other person or organisation.
This is a fundamental issue:
Does PAB exist to represent only the views of signatories, or does it
have a larger responsibility?
Before Peter brought this up my automatic assumption has been the
later, based on the wording in the MoU about "public trust". That is,
PAB (and POC and to some extent CORE) have signed and agreement (the
MoU) to, as best they can, take on the responsibility of representing
the public -- even if they smell bad, and spit in our face.
Peter now presents an alternate view, one that I believe is not
supported by the MoU. I would not have signed the MoU, in fact, if
I didn't believe the phrase "public trust" had important
implications. So I believe there is a strong ethical component to an
argument for an open list. However, Peter's point of view has an
ethical component, as well.
> Access to correspondence is in my view a priviledge of those who have
> committed to working with each other to support the objectives they
> have agreed to.
>
> Making it available to a wider audience would in my view provide
> a resource for those who would seek to discredit the organisation.
Is this true? I'm not sure it is -- anybody would have the option of
researching any particular claim in full context. It is just as likely,
in my view, that an open archive would provide a resource for supporters.
On the other hand, we have taken a PR beating because the list is
closed.
> As we also have competitor organisations, they would have an open
> door into our policy making machine. This seems unwise to me.
If we could in fact guarantee that the list was private, then this
would be a good point -- we lose any advantage of surprise. But, as
has been pointed out, our competitors actually have access to the
list anyway.
> It may also inhibit participation by discouraging PAB folk to be less
> than candid about what they say, knowing it will soon be available for
> the world to read.
Yes, this is a possibility. I note, though, that this has simply not
been a problem in the IETF.
> If I could see a compelling argument for the benefits of hanging
> our correspondence out for all and sundry to read, I am prepared
> to review my position.
Aside from the ethical considerations, there is the issue of practical
advantages. There are two primary advantages I see: 1) we diffuse a
PR problem; and 2) we provide ourselves with a organizational memory.
This last point is the most important concrete benefit. How many
people remember the original discussion about charters, for example?
Several times in the past it has been mentioned that it would be good
if new members had access to an archive of previous mail. People
have written lengthy documents and posted them to the list -- without
an archive they disappear. An email archive is actually an extremely
useful tool for PAB members. I personally have an archive that
includes over 3600 messages. I use it constantly -- I seldom look at
really old messages, but I look over the past couple months of
messages very frequently (of course, I have a rotten memory...)
The possibility of a private archive for PAB members only has been
mentioned. It is my considered opinion that it is a practical
impossibility to maintain privacy across 200 people on the net, and
it is not even worth trying. The benefit here is sort of a negative
one -- we get to avoid the work of trying to maintain privacy.
-- Kent Crispin, PAB Chair "No reason to get excited", kent@songbird.com the thief he kindly spoke... PGP fingerprint: B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44 61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55 http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html
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