I probably won't be there though some colleagues may be.
One the past and current features of the BO is that it an un-society.
Insofar as I had input this was deliberate. We are who we are. We have a
mantra - and like all scripture it shouldn't be taken too seriously. It is a
meritocracy - those who contribute in whatever way are valued by the others.
The time may come when it needs formalising. My personal view is not, but I
wouldn't stand in the way of progress. It has a beauty of being undefined. I
think it's remarkable how the idea has held together with some very
committed people and an shared vision. For me the vision is still clear an
relevant.
Rather than advertise dinners (and the dinners are simply dinners) we
should probably brand our outputs better. I am as guilty as anyone. But if
all our software and documents and data carried a BO logo then we'd get the
message out much better. Perhaps someone would like to volunteer to
coordinate it.
I have been very active recently in the Open Knowledge Foundation (
www.okfn.org). Personally I find the open Knowledge Definition extremely
valuable:
*“A piece of knowledge is open if you are free to use, reuse, and
redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and
share-alike.”.
and The Open Software Service Definition (OSSD) defines ‘openness’ in
relation to online (software) services. “A service is open if its source
code is Free/Open Source Software and non-personal data is open as in the
Open Knowledge Definition (OKD).”.
*I would generally assume that Open in ODOSOS conformed to this. So
generally un-membership of the BO means that one coexists and works in this
un-framework.
Anyone is completely welcome at the un-meetings and welcome to post to the
un-mailing list.
But I am sure there will be other un-opinions on this.
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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