[Open-access] Eric Raymond offer to help with "Open Access"

Tom Olijhoek tom.olijhoek at gmail.com
Mon Feb 6 17:03:46 UTC 2012


I agree with you that the group is open for everyone. and if we think that
ESR can have an original contribution to the open access group he could be
more involved, than just being a follower.

i remember Peter at one time asking if we knew of other people we would
like to ask for this group. I just finished reading Michael Eisen's blog
"You are Elsevier............"  Wouldn't he be a perfect allie?

TOM

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 5:19 PM, Peter Murray-Rust <pm286 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 3:46 PM, Nick Barnes <nb at climatecode.org> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 10:41, Björn Brembs <b.brembs at googlemail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > I was rather thinking that I don't want to be associated
>> > with a climate change denialist...
>> >
>> > Bjoern
>> >
>> > Mike Taylor wrote:
>> >
>> >> I must admit that I have mixed feelings about Raymond myself.  He is
>> >> the main voice behind the Open Source labelling, which of course was
>> >> essentially a rebranding of the Free Software (free as in freedom)
>> >> that Richard M. Stallman had been advocating for many years.  Although
>> >> in mechanical terms Open Source and Free Software are very close, they
>> >> are a million miles apart in motivation: Free Software is
>> >> fundamentally an ethical and idealism movement, prizing freedom simply
>> >> because freedom is good; whereas Open Source is much more pragmatic,
>> >> and is explicitly about which way of building software tends to be
>> >> most efficient.
>> >
>> >> So his an our goals may be very similar; but I suspect our motivations
>> >> are not.  My advice would be to welcome him as an ally, but to be
>> >> cautious; and not to be surprised if we find down the line that his
>> >> and our interests diverge, maybe radically.
>>
>> Both Mike and Bjoern have good points against ESR: he has always been
>> an abrasive character.  He has strong and fixed political views with
>> which I have always differed and which now blinker him to climate
>> science.  Nonetheless, I enthusiastically welcome his involvement and
>> support.  Any collective includes some unusual, polarising, and even
>> unpleasant characters.  I would rather have them inside the tent,
>> directing their fire outwards.
>>
>> In contrast, Richard Stallman, for whom I have huge respect (and with
>> whose politics I generally agree) sent me an email complaining about
>> my use of the expression "Free and Open Source software" in supporting
>> materials for the Science Code Manifesto, and has declined to endorse
>> the Manifesto (apparently because of my use of that expression in
>> those supporting materials).
>>
>
> I support what Nick has written
>
> Membership of OKF groups does not depend on political views and is
> primarily determined by alignment with the philosophical, practical and
> social goals of making information Open and devising ways to do this
> (within the law). I do not agree with ESR's views on climate and guns but I
> respect his clear commitment to Open Source. It can be argued that a major
> problem in the climate change debate is lack of Open information and that
> everybody will feel enhanced by this.
>
> By contrast I find it harder to accommodate people who use "Open" in a
> shifting manner and accept a much more limited view of access - and that is
> why we have set up this list.
>
> OKF is a broad church, reaching out to many different types of community
> and people. We should welcome this diversity. Among other things it
> provides a greater set of views of which we have to be aware and for which
> we have to prepare arguments for or against or compromise.
>
> P.
>
>
>> --
>> Nick Barnes, Climate Code Foundation, http://climatecode.org/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> open-access at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-access
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Peter Murray-Rust
> Reader in Molecular Informatics
> Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
> University of Cambridge
> CB2 1EW, UK
> +44-1223-763069
>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-access
>
>
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