[okfn-coord] Some thoughts about mailing list access

Wed Jun 10 12:30:00 UTC 2009

I would certainly support opening the more general conversations for public
access.

I wonder also, if it is the right time (ie. early in the Boards more formal
instantiation) to build in Board membership review periods. This ensures
that you are not burdened with a board that no longer fits the
organisation's needs but also builds in regular opportunities for public
engagement in the Board's membership?

p

2009/6/10 Jo Walsh <jo at frot.org>

> dear all,
>
> The critical feedback on http://www.pledgebank.com/support-okfn
> has got me thinking about organisation models a lot.
>
> One feature of OSGeo's Board is that its mailing list is public
> (open archives, anyone can join subject to moderation).
> There is a private alias which is only used for discussions
> which involve uncertain money/contracts or may impact
> peoples' jobs or reputations, and it's almost never used.
>
> OKFN has historically had a discuss list per project/effort
> with a coord list reserved for "sensitive" matters, partly
> on the grounds that the more is talked about in public,
> the more people feel inspired to get involved/ that they
> have a stake.
>
> Right now the okfn-discuss list is "too public" for matters
> that don't *need* to be private (such as my loose talk about
> JISC funding calls where there are several JISC people
> listening on the discuss list). It has too large and disparate
> a subscriber base to discuss detail of running the Foundation.
>
> I realise it's also not viable to open up archive access
> to this coord list as there is sensitive stuff in the archives.
> I don't want to create or be on another list, so i would
> suggest that we try to move more to the existing okfn-help list
> (topics like Becky's effort to get us free designer time,
> and where it would be used).
>
> I turned up this piece of writing by Chris Holmes about
> the early days of OSGeo, and i found it quite relevant
> to the organisational "growing pains" that OKFN is having now.
>
> I wonder what others think,
>
>
> jo
> --
>
> _______________________________________________
> okfn-coord mailing list
> okfn-coord at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-coord
>
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