A week ago, I made a new proposal on the archives in [5454] (reproduced
below). Since that time, one dozen subscribers responded.
As there hasn't been any discussion on this subject in the last few days,
I think it is a good time to review what the responses have been to date
and to make suggestions for when and how we are to resolve this question.
A. Review of responses
===================
* Of the 12 listmembers to respond to the proposal, 10 supported the
proposal. They included:
o Michael P [5455] o Paul C [5464]
o Mike W [5457;5461] o Alejandro R [5467]
o Allin [5458] o Makoto [5471]
o Simon [5462] o Riccardo [5472]
o Costas [5463] o Ian [5481]
* 2 members, with very different positions, wrote posts in opposition to
the proposal. I.e.
o Andrew K in [5456] argued that the proposal didn't go far
enough in the direction of "openness", and;
o Paul Z in [5460] wrote in favor of maintaining a closed
archives.
[NB: subscribers should read (or re-read) [5456] and [5460] to have a
fuller, and more accurate, understanding of their positions].
B. Where do we go from here?
=========================
Here's my suggestion:
a) more subscribers should write posts in support or opposition to the
proposal;
b) to have more of a *discussion* (rather than merely a vote tally) more
subscribers who write posts should *explain* why they support or
oppose the proposal;
c) we should aim to *resolve* this question in a reasonable period of time.
More specifically, I think we should set a *goal* of trying to
resolve this question by *mid-October*.
In solidarity, Jerry
=========================================================================
Archives Proposal from [5454]:
(1) The archives be opened for the purpose of research to serious scholars
and students of political economy.
(2) It will be left to the good judgment of individual listmembers to
decide who to notify about the archives, but:
a) anyone who wishes to examine the archives must agree _in advance_
that they will not quote the contents of posts on the Internet or
elsewhere without the explicit written permission of the author(s).
b) recommended individuals must agree in advance that they will not
forward copies of any OPE-L posts to others or notify anyone else
of the location and passwords for the OPE-L WWW archive site.
(3) The List Coordinator, i.e. myself, will be notified in advance of
who listmembers want to tell about the archives. It will then be
decided who will communicate the above information, including the
address and passwords for the WWW site of the archives, to the
proposed individuals.