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

Mon Feb 6 17:08:31 UTC 2012

On 6 February 2012 17:03, Tom Olijhoek <tom.olijhoek at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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?

Absolutely!

-- Mike.

>
> 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/
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> open-access mailing list
>>> 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
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> open-access mailing list
>> open-access at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-access
>>
>
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