There is a balance between secrecy and openness that may be worth exploring.
Having worked intensively in an OKF mode for several years I am now quite relaxed about using Etherpads, wikis, blogs and the rest for most things. I often feel uncomfortable with closed sites and infuriated with ad hoc mails to closed groups of people. There is a huge value to mailing lists which record traffic without me having to worry about how to find it in the future. I also feel that Etherpads - though formally open to the world - are effectively "open-private". Anyone who needs to know about them will get wind of their existence but spam engines, etc. won't find them. But there are things that need to be kept off the public record: * comments about individuals, even where benign. A typical area is "should we invite X to speak"? I wouldn't want to discuss this on a public blog. * anything formally libellous or otherwise having legal implications and then the grey area of disruptive activity... There are several areas where I want my (and OKF) activities to be disruptive (legally). I want to challenge areas such as scholarly publishing, scientific software, walled gardens, etc. I don't necessarily want to announce what my precise motivation is at the start and I may wish to keep tactics secret. I will still be working in an Open environment with code, data, posted as OKD compliant but I just won't say exactly why. In the current case I very much doubt if anyone will seriously find and challenge the ideas. Ideas have their time, and when that comes many people are inspired independently. The key thing is to work to make them happen and that's a lot harder! P. -- 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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