Dear LUAU,
Beware the politician who offers one thing while taking another.
I'd like to make an attempt at illumination of the "backstory" here.
I've grown concerned about HOSEF's "dual mission", and its increasing
self-conflict within the organization. Specifically, I think the
focus on "eWaste" and recycling is now in-conflict with the "Open
Source Education" activity defined by HOSEF's name.
I'd like HOSEF to be more about "education and advocacy" of Free and
Open Source in Hawaii, to that end, I've expended some personal
resource in that mater. For example, many of you are perhaps unaware
that I personally paid for Richard Stallman's flight here last year.
(rms stayed with Scott because he *didn't want* to stay in a hotel.)
I also arranged for Barton George and Dave Roberts to attend, though
their employer(s) paid their way. I further paid to fly the group to
Kamuela, put them up in a hotel, (over rms's objections), and arranged
for them to present to folks there. While many in the audience were
from the astronomy community in Kamuela, one father/son drove in from
Kona, and other folks drove in from Hilo.
I received no remuneration from any party for this, I was just "happy
to do it".
I've been working on another list of people, including Jordan Hubbard
who runs Apple's "unix development group", (and before that ran the
FreeBSD project), who was actually born in Honolulu, and others, for a
encore. Rather than a "big event", run in the pursuit of profit, with
admission and a large venue, I'm more in-favor of smaller, one-day
events, hosted someplace like UH.
I have good contacts in the industry (a side effect form having been
in "unix" since 1980), so I think I can be successful collaborating
with others (of you, especially) to do this again and again. I'd also
like to help organize more "tech days", not unlike the one that Matt
organized around MythTV. Many of you have good contacts and good
ideas as well. Tellingly, we've not done much, because there has
been a 'friction' between LUAU and HOSEF that I've been unable to
heal, or even mitigate. Tellingly, I'm interesting in the
'tinkering' aspects of FOSS, and now I'm about to move into a place
where I might actually be able to do it.
Scott thinks I'm attacking him because I want to change HOSEF. I'm
not attacking Scott, but I can understand that he's upset about his
"life's work" (to quote John Edwards) of eWaste being separated from
an organization that both he and many other's see as "his". In the
minds of (far) too many, HOSEF *is* Scott, and herein lies the issue.
I see real dangers of a 501(c)3 (like HOSEF) intertwined with both
political campaigns (Scott's, his former employers, his former/future
political opponents).
I see real dangers of a 501(c)3 that begins to attach large revenue
streams, such as could be realized by HOSEF becoming an "eWaste"
recycler.
I've hear now from too many people that they'd be interested in HOSEF,
without the "recycled computers in schools" aspect.
And, to be blunt, I see real dangers of an organization that is, by
all appearances, the corporate identity of one man.
So, with these things in-mind, I'd like HOSEF to change its mission to
concentrate on "education and advocacy" of Open Source *in* Hawaii,
run with much more involvement from the community. The alternative
is to abandon HOSEF, but I don't think thats quite as good an outcome.
So, with you the community in-mind, I'd like to hear from you on this
matter, preferably on-list, but I'll take private comments (and keep
them private) on this matter.
Jim
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