[uf-discuss] Re: A 7-day hold on discussing legal/process issues
microfolks -- Last August, I announced a decision by the microformats admins to place a seven-day hold on discussing legal and governance issues raised by Joe Andrieu [1, attached]. Now that we've recently enacted some wide-ranging changes to the legal status of microformats.org contributions [2], I would like to revisit some aspects of that message and apologize to Mr. Andrieu for those. To briefly recap my role, I am the first point of contact for the microformats admins on legal and governance issues. Historically, this was due to my role at CommerceNet Labs, the nonprofit organization that initially sponsored microformats.org (including the current server bills). Due to my experience with several different standards bodies and nonprofits, such as W3C, IETF, and CommerceNet, I am perhaps too familiar with some of the legal consequences of developing IT standards (though I am far, far from being a lawyer myself). In that light, I have been quite sensitive to any public discussion that links microformats.org to standards. That includes potentially overreacting to parallel discussions initiated publicly and privately with Joe Andrieu (and others) earlier that year. The community policy was (and is) to raise legal and governance issues with me directly, before escalating concerns on record with the entire community [3]. In light of our prior emails and phone calls in the spring and summer, Joe was making a good faith effort to work with that policy, so I regret any implication of impropriety on his behalf in this incident. I have always believed that he was sincere in his concerns, even though I did not always agree with his positions. Now that one aspect of the legal status of microformats has significantly advanced, with the announcement of a public-domain contribution policy, several of the concerns raised last year are now moot. Given the situation at the time, I (and the admins) would not change our decision to implement that 7-day hold. However, I personally would like to apologize for how I communicated that decision, to Joe and to the community. I am looking forward to keeping this experience in mind as we continue to work together to grow the microformats community and extend the impact of this novel approach to open data exchange and its still-evolving open development process. Sincerely, Rohit Khare [1] http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/2007- August/010380.html [2] http://microformats.org/blog/2007/12/29/making-open-standards-as- open-as-possible/ [3] http://microformats.org/wiki/ Category:public_domain_license#Point_of_Contact -Original Message- From: Rohit Khare [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2007 6:56 PM To: microformats-discuss@microformats.org Cc: Joe Andrieu Subject: A 7-day hold on discussing legal/process issues After Joe Andrieu's most recent edits to the wiki under Standards, IP, and Transparency [1], the admins and I have decided to impose a 7-day cooling-off period on discussions regarding governance and legal status issues by Mr. Andrieu, for repeatedly disregarding the community guidelines to discuss legal matters with me before altering the public wiki or archived mailing list discussions [2]. This action is not taken lightly: all of his recent messages and wiki edits have been concerned these topics, without any direct communication to me before or after. Note that while his mailing list and wiki access will be blocked for one week, if he has substantive contributions *other* than governance issues, he remains welcome to contact me to forward them on to the community. This policy, a standing request to the microformats community to avoid legal debates on record without contacting me first, has admittedly been questioned by him and by others. I am drafting a separate email addressing some of those concerns, as well as Mr. Andrieu's earlier public note to me [3]. Nonetheless, that is the current community policy for better or worse, and the volunteer admins have decided to uphold that with this decision. -- Rohit Khare [1] http://microformats.org/wiki?title=governance- issuesdiff=0oldid=19334 [2] http://microformats.org/wiki/ Category:public_domain_license#Point_of_Contact [3] http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/2007-July/ 010318.h tml ___ microformats-discuss mailing list microformats-discuss@microformats.org http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
Re: [uf-discuss] Re: A 7-day hold on discussing legal/process issues
In message [EMAIL PROTECTED], Rohit Khare [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes To briefly recap my role, I am the first point of contact for the microformats admins on legal and governance issues. [...] I am perhaps too familiar with some of the legal consequences of developing IT standards (though I am far, far from being a lawyer myself). That's interesting, in the light of: http://microformats.org/wiki/logical-flaws#Legally_is_meaningless_from_non-lawyers -- Andy Mabbett ___ microformats-discuss mailing list microformats-discuss@microformats.org http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
[uf-discuss] RE: A 7-day hold on discussing legal/process issues
Rohit Khare wrote (January 23, 2008 9:47 AM): Last August, I announced a decision by the microformats admins to place a seven-day hold on discussing legal and governance issues raised by Joe Andrieu [1, attached]. Now that we've recently enacted some wide-ranging changes to the legal status of microformats.org contributions [2], I would like to revisit some aspects of that message and apologize to Mr. Andrieu for those. To briefly recap my role, I am the first point of contact for the microformats admins on legal and governance issues. Historically, this was due to my role at CommerceNet Labs, the nonprofit organization that initially sponsored microformats.org (including the current server bills). Due to my experience with several different standards bodies and nonprofits, such as W3C, IETF, and CommerceNet, I am perhaps too familiar with some of the legal consequences of developing IT standards (though I am far, far from being a lawyer myself). In that light, I have been quite sensitive to any public discussion that links microformats.org to standards. That includes potentially overreacting to parallel discussions initiated publicly and privately with Joe Andrieu (and others) earlier that year. The community policy was (and is) to raise legal and governance issues with me directly, before escalating concerns on record with the entire community [3]. In light of our prior emails and phone calls in the spring and summer, Joe was making a good faith effort to work with that policy, so I regret any implication of impropriety on his behalf in this incident. I have always believed that he was sincere in his concerns, even though I did not always agree with his positions. Now that one aspect of the legal status of microformats has significantly advanced, with the announcement of a public-domain contribution policy, several of the concerns raised last year are now moot. Given the situation at the time, I (and the admins) would not change our decision to implement that 7-day hold. However, I personally would like to apologize for how I communicated that decision, to Joe and to the community. I am looking forward to keeping this experience in mind as we continue to work together to grow the microformats community and extend the impact of this novel approach to open data exchange and its still-evolving open development process. [1] http://microformats.org/wiki?title=governance-issuesdiff=0oldid=19334 [2] http://microformats.org/wiki/Category:public_domain_license#Point_of_Contact [3] http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/2007-July/010318.h tml Rohit, Apology accepted. Although we have agreed to disagree on several relevant points, I appreciate your professionalism and thoughtful consideration about how to resolve my concerns about the language used in the 7-day ban. As you have clarified your continued position that you would do it again, I'd like the record to show my own position in our off-list conversations: Based on our admitted prior emails and phone conversations, I, in fact, met the community guidelines whose violation was the basis for the ban, and therefore, the ban was inappropriate. It has taken a while to work through the details of that disagreement, but it is a testament to the priorities of the uF leadership to have done so without distracting the working lists with a governance issue. And with that, in the interest of avoiding a protracted debate on governance, I hope we can learn from it and move on. Best, -j -- Joe Andrieu SwitchBook http://www.switchbook.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1 (805) 705-8651 Sincerely, Rohit Khare -Original Message- From: Rohit Khare [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2007 6:56 PM To: microformats-discuss@microformats.org Cc: Joe Andrieu Subject: A 7-day hold on discussing legal/process issues After Joe Andrieu's most recent edits to the wiki under Standards, IP, and Transparency [1], the admins and I have decided to impose a 7-day cooling-off period on discussions regarding governance and legal status issues by Mr. Andrieu, for repeatedly disregarding the community guidelines to discuss legal matters with me before altering the public wiki or archived mailing list discussions [2]. This action is not taken lightly: all of his recent messages and wiki edits have been concerned these topics, without any direct communication to me before or after. Note that while his mailing list and wiki access will be blocked for one week, if he has substantive contributions *other* than governance issues, he remains welcome to contact me to forward them on to the community. This policy, a standing request to the microformats community to avoid legal debates on record without contacting me first, has admittedly been questioned by him and by others. I am drafting a separate email addressing some of those concerns, as well
