I am forwarding an e-mail from Brian Bray of Minoru Development, where he evidently expects this list to change its name. I am not a lawyer - I do not know whether the name of a mailing list can conflict with a trademark, but I would like to bring his message to the attention of the members of the list openhealth@yahoogroups.com in order for you to express your opinions.
Please, no flames - let's keep the discussion moderate and professional. Thank you very much. Regards -- Bhaskar -------- Forwarded Message -------- > From: Brian Bray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: openhealth-list@minoru-development.com > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], openhealth-list@minoru-development.com > Subject: Why are you here? (was Re: Hello list) > Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 21:01:17 -0600 > > > 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/
