Our Purpose (Re: DRAFT FAQ: Free vs. Open)

[Ernest Prabhakar]

Hi Rick et al,

On Jan 9, 2008, at 8:30 PM, Rick Moen wrote:
> Separately:  At the risk of raining on Ernie's parade, I'd like to ask
> what he's really doing here.  If he's (in effect) averaging out all  
> views
> expressed on this public mailing list in order to arrive at his FAQ  
> entries,
> I have my doubts about whether his results will fairly represent OSI.

My goal, frankly, is to remind the denizens of the list that their  
*real* purpose is to provide a resource for the larger community  
(rather than, say, competing to best their opponents in verbal  
combat :-P).

The dream is to utilize the "collective intelligence" of this list to  
compile meaningful answers to common questions, so that people with  
*less* experience than us have at least _some_ clue as to what is  
going on.

e.g., https://osi.osuosl.org/wiki/help/opensource

This isn't "averaging out all views", it is trying to listen to all  
sides and come up with something reasonably NPOV that reflects _my_  
(and the editors) best understanding of reality, in way that is  
(hopefully) easily digestible to outsiders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view

I don't pretend my work is perfect, but it *is* the work of this list,  
as expressed in our new charter:

http://opensource.org/lists#license-discuss-list

The more we can focus our collective energy on improving the FAQ for  
those on the outside, the better off everyone will be. Your (plural)  
assistance to that end is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
-- Ernie P.
L-D Moderator