On Jan 23, 2008, at 10:24 PM, Ben Rockwood wrote: > Garrett D'Amore wrote: >> Such a position would severely constrain the OGB's interactions with >> other bodies, and may ultimately destroy its ability to act >> effectively. >> >> Sometimes discussions with 3rd parties *have* to be private, and if >> you're not willing to have the discussions in private, then the other >> parties will just refuse to talk to you. Sometimes the 3rd party >> here >> will be Sun. Sometimes it might be other organizations, such as >> security organizations (CERT), or other vendors who are contemplating >> opening up to Solaris, but aren't yet ready to disclose those >> plans to >> the world-at-large. > > No.... 3rd parties do not have to be private. If they do, they can go > elsewhere. OPENsolaris. OPEN source. OPEN! We can't do things > otherwise, and if we do we are doomed to be a sham. CLOSEDsolaris is > dead, OPENsolaris is the future. > > This stabs at the heart of whats wrong with the relationship > between Sun > and the community... we don't do closed, we don't do private.
Ben, that is a fantasy. Every single open source foundation has private lists. Boards always have private discussions. Legal discussions must be private to protect attorney-client privs. One of the main purposes of having a board is to enable a small group to do what cannot be done on big mailing lists. Besides, we don't do closed. We don't "do" much of anything at the moment. Focus should be placed on "doing" stuff in the open, like forcing the gates into the open, not all of the OGB's discussions. I like your energy, but I think this proposal is the wrong tree. > Good or bad. Right or wrong. For better or worse. OPEN. Thats what > transparency is, and thats what this board must be. Transparency is about making DECISIONS in public. Discussion often includes items for which each of the OGB members might be sued if they occurred in a public list. That is why boards always have at least some private discussions. The OGB is transparent because it is required to make decisions in public, not have all discussions in public. Sun, in particular, is a publicly traded company. There are some discussions that they must have with the OGB before an announcement to the public (e.g., anything that amounts to tentative plans to make some piece of revenue-generating software open source). If the OGB does not have a private list, then they will have to make private telephone calls or string large address lists together. This is not a matter of choice -- the SEC has rules that must be obeyed. If the OGB can only discuss in public, then no private matter will ever be discussed with the OGB. It will not be governing OpenSolaris at all. It will be limited to reacting to other organization's announcements. ....Roy
