[okfn-advisory] Leading by example

[Nathan Torkington]

On 5/07/2011, at 8:57 PM, Jo Walsh wrote:
> Rufus would often pop up insisting that conversation which had drifted onto the private coord list should be brought back to a public list. 


To be honest, I barely skim the public mailing list.  I don't keep up with the Albanian efforts for open geodata, the Kenyan open voting data, or Czech spending analyses.  I want a separate list for this reason only.  I don't mind if the archives of the list are world-readable.

I also don't mind if people email me off-list for advice because they *don't* want a public record.  I believe in openness but some of the most effective copyright lobbying we did in New Zealand was coordinated on a private list.  At least one reason for this is because the Microsoft lawyer is a member of the NZ Open Source Society mailing list (!) and we wanted to be able to surprise our opponents, which couldn't have happened if we'd coordinated in the open.  I agree with the general principle that these situations should be exceptional, not routine, and that the coordinated action should be against a common enemy and not a faction.

Cheers;

Nat