Brian, As the first person to respond to your announcement I have a few questions and comments:
Where on earth is that island? It sounds great!! Sloth has prevailed! While I watched with interest the comments, accusations, conspiracy theories and solutions to the problem of the disintegrating list and (apparent) failure of auto-re-configuration, I was saying to myself, "I wonder what REALLY happened?" I also was able avoid the extra energy and expense of sending anyone money or setting up a server or even changing subscriptions. THANK YOU for rescuing the list. I look forward to more content and less [boring admin]. (Although I salute those with the energy and passion to TRY to save the list when conventional wisdom said it was dead.) Where is everyone else on a fine Saturday morning? Bruce Slater ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Bray" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Openhealth List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2004 7:20 AM Subject: ANNOUNCEMENT: Openhealth list > Thanks for the concern about the list and the many ideas about how to > improve it. > > As you are aware, the moderator of the list, Dave Scott, passed away in > July. Minoru as a company and myself personally are still recovering > from this loss. I took on the administration of the Openhealth list at > his death. > > I went on vacation in late December to an island in the indian ocean and > I admit that I didn't even take my laptop! I also suffered a serious > hard disk failure after my return and the backlog of e-mail messages > (more than 50,000) has overloaded the automation that I had in place to > manage my inbox. Spam is a serious problem that, in my opinion, now > requires legislative solutions to protect our rights to association. > > So, I have not yet read the openhealth list or seen the administrative > requests made since December 20th. From a quick look at the archives, > and from some telephone conversations with list members, it seems that > this has inconvenienced some people, and for this I apologise. While it > would be tempting to say that this lapse in service is just temporary, > the truth is that running the list does not fit well with my other > responsibilities at Minoru, with my personality, or with my career > goals. It's time for me to move on and step aside. > > I am pleased to announce that Bud Bruegger has agreed to manage the > Openhealth list on behalf of Minoru starting next week. Bud has a long > history of collaboration and work in open source health care. He is one > of the founders of OSHCA and the author of the OSHCA charter. He is a > partner in the Spirit project http://www.euspirit.org and has great > experience in community building. I feel he can make valuable > contributions to the dynamics of the group. > > I'd like to respond to some specific comments from previous messages and > that people have relayed to me by phone: > > The first is about Minoru's commitment to the list. The Minoru business > plan is to distribute integrated health care software products based on > open source technology. We realised very early that we needed to nuture > the creation of mature software and encourage collaboration among those > interested. "Openhealth" is the brand name for those products and the > list was created to provide a forum for the exchange of information > between the potential customers and potential producers of this > technology which we see as being one and the same group. As long as this > remains our business plan, the Openhealth forum will be open for anyone > interested to communicate. The Openhealth name is trademark of our company. > > The second is about this concept of "replacing the list". Of course, > anyone is free to create another list (with a different name) to discuss > whatever topics they want. Every development project, every company in > our little industry, and every organisation (OSHCA, IMIA working group, > AMIA working group, etc.) has their own list(s). We would welcome > announcements of related lists and initiatives, but not advertising for > them, ongoing solicitation for membership, or statements that > incorrectly imply Minoru or Openhealth endorsement. > > Thirdy, there seem to be two types of suggestions for the list: > extending the list with services to make it more accessible to a broader > audience, and increasing participation in the administration and control > of the list. > > These concerns are exactly the motivation and opportunities of the > Spirit site http://www.euspirit.org/ . There is a kind of "Spirit > community" of persons interested in open source health care but not at > the detailed technical level of openhealth list discussions. > The Spirit site offers, today, many of the services such as improved > list software and Wiki's that have been discussed. Spirit is supported > by a consortium of partners and is therefor not dependent on a single > company. We would welcome additional participation in the ongoing > development of the spirit site through new consortium members, or simply > by volunteers. I know that Bud, our new list manager wants to more > closely integrate the openhealth list with this Spirit community and > that the technology is already in place to do this. > > Finally, there were some comments about the transparency of the list > management. In fact, we have published detailed statistics about the > openhealth list and about other resources for the open source health > care community. These documents are available at > http://www.euspirit.org/en/deliverables.php . The Measurement and > Evaluation Reports (D6v1-4) contain information on the number of > members, number of active participants, and number of messages, etc. The > End of Project Survey (D11) measures the impact that we, as a community, > have had on the marketplace in Europe. > > I thank all of you for your patience during the last few weeks, and YES, > we will get caught up on the administrative requests soon. > > All for now. > > -Brian > -- > Brian Bray > Minoru Development Corporation; Minoru Development SARL > The home of Openhealth(tm): http://www.openhealth.com > > 3, rue du Colonel Moll, 75017 Paris France > +33.6.8750.2465 > > >
