[OpenID board] Use of board-private list (Was: Re: Trademark problem?)

Chris Messina chris.messina at gmail.com
Wed Dec 3 00:49:51 UTC 2008


On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 1:50 PM, Martin Atkins <mart at degeneration.co.uk>wrote:

> Chris Messina wrote:
> >
> > This present case is mild on the whole, and represents a good case where
> > any potential legal actions should be discussed in confidence. I don't
> > disagree with that. But bounding the kinds of conversation that take
> > place on the private list to a specific set of topics or items which
> > match a public set of criteria is desirable, if it's not already been
> done.
> >
>
> Chris,
>
> There is a standing policy that everything sent to the private list must
> begin with a justification for it being private. Other board members can
> and often do reject these justifications and the discussions move to the
> public list.
>
> However, I agree that it would be good to make public exactly what
> justifications are allowed and ensure that any private conversations fit
> into one of these categories.


I've amended the page on the fan wiki with this statement. That helps to
explain current practice; it does not, however, constitute an official or
regular policy that might set a framework for what falls within the realm of
necessarily private.

My intention is not force any uncomfortable situation, simply to arrive at
clarity and transparency so that questions in the future can be treated in
an expected and normal way. In other words, the original trademark
conversation might have been handled in a uniform way had there been a
stated policy governing the discussion of legal concerns.

There is nothing the OIDF bylaws that addresses matters like this, even as a
conventional approach to dealing with sensitive matters. Surely we could
borrow and tweak some existing boilerplate guidelines having to do with such
issues?

Chris

-- 
Chris Messina
Citizen-Participant &
 Open Technology Advocate-at-Large
factoryjoe.com # diso-project.org
citizenagency.com # vidoop.com
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