For the information of the organisers of this list: please see the message from Brian Bray below. I note that Brian sent this message to the original openhealth-list hosted by Minoru Corporation, so I see no ethical impediment in forwarding it to this list, especially given its subject matter.
BTW, Horst Herb has re-affirmed his standing offer to host this list (or a re-named version of it) on his servers (located in a data centre somewhere in Germany). Horst's servers already host the OzDocIT web site, dealing with Australian health informatics matters - see http://www.ozdocit.org - and the GPCG (General Practice Computing Group) mailing list, which is the premier Australian health informatics mailing list - it took over from a list of the same name when the organistaion which hosted the former list decided to replace it with a Web forum (which has since seen very little use). Horst's servers use Mailman and can support custom domain names, wikis and community portals - provided the focus is open source in health. I am passing on this information on behalf of Horst because he refuses, understandably perhaps, to subscribe to a Yahoo-hosted mailing list. Anyway, if it does become necessary or desirable to move this list somewhere else (with or without a new name), Horst's servers are ready and able to provide a nice new home. Tim C -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Why are you here? (was Re: Hello list) Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 04:01:17 +0100 From: Brian Bray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], openhealth-list@minoru-development.com References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Tim Churches a écrit : > Hmmm, does Minoru plan to assert its trade mark against the Openhealth > list on Yahoo (see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/openhealth/ )? > I'm not expecting that I'll have to. It depends on the the other list and my decisions over the next few weeks. The way I see it, there are two possibilities for the motivations of the creators of the other list: 1) It really is a question of the technical capabilities of the list and the lack of support. In this case, the folks running the yahoo list will have no problem changing the name to avoid confusion. The two lists will either merge at some point or specialize to meet different needs of the community. The yahoo list has critical mass, so a name change is unlikely to cause its members to leave. 2) The motivation is to profit from the goodwill that Minoru has in the community on an ongoing basis. In this case, the folks running the yahoo list will resist changing the name and it will be necessary to assert the trademark to protect Minoru's interests and reputation. But, as I said, I'm not expecting this to be necessary. I believe that we can come to some understanding that is best for everyone. ---- In any event, the needs of the community have substantially changed since the Openhealth list was created. When we started, there were just a small number of open source projects. They were duplicating each others work, the creators had never met or communicated, and the level of competition was preventing collaboration to move ahead more quickly. Thanks to you and the other members of the Openhealth list, there is much more understanding and appreciation of the merits of different approaches to solve different problems. There is also much more collaboration as projects exchange not only ideas, but modules (such as FreeB for example). Ongoing communication between projects is still important, but there are now many mechanisms and places where that happens. The question I asked in my first reponse to your note "Why are you here?" This is a serious question we should address to determine the future of the list and whether it still has a value in the community. The increasing number of open source healthcare projects creates a need to objective comparative reviews and critiques to help refine their work. There is also a need for greater communication and colllaboration between physicians and engineers one the one hand, and open source developers and medical informatics research on the other. Can this list help meet these needs? ------ In terms of the technical capabilities of the list, the reason for the long delay in upgrading the list is that my internet service provider was not ready. I considered hosting the list on an open source product or moving it to a free service in the past, but both these options had drawbacks. It is just a fact of life that Minoru's sites are subject to attack. My ISPs report that our sites are subject to more security incidents than other sites they host, including e-commerce sites. I have hosted other lists directly, and came to the conclusion that the Openhealth list absolutely needs stronger security support than we could ensure in-house. For example, getting an e-mail saying you have more than 10,000 administrative requests. The current system, while crude and out of date, enables us to have a quiet conversation without hurculean effort. As for hosting the list on a free service, these services are not charities. I notice that the project sites for many open source projects now have advertising for directly competing proprietary products. The archive for the openhealth list suffers from the same blight. Many of the the "lurkers" on the openhealth list are doctors, a highly prized market segment for advertisers. Another big segment is commercial and non-profit open source enterprises who cannot and should not permit their work to used as advertising media for their competitors. Just this month, my ISP is rolling out a better mailing list service which they will support and protect, so it now possible to provide a friendlier interface without the problems mentioned above. It is up to you. Why are you here? -Brian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/openhealth/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
