Openness policy: correction to minutes (and practice)

[Robin Cover <robin@oasis-open.org>]

In my role as OASIS information systems analyst and "Chief
Defender of OASIS *OPEN*"(tm), I have noted the following problem
with published information about MS StC documents.  I reported
this problem in September 2007, but it seems to have fallen
through the cracks. It needs to be corrected in the minutes, and
Member Section (StC) members need to have proper expectations
about the OASIS openness policy.

The published minutes of the e-Government Steering Committee
Kick-off conference Call (2007-09-12) [1] assert that the
email list archives for the e-Government Steering Committee
are "open only to SC members and OASIS staff". It says:

    Operational Norms etc - Scott McGrath (SM) explained the
    OASIS toolkit to assist the Member Sections and Steering
    Committees. He explained the roster and email archives;
    the SC archive is not public and is open only to SC members
    and OASIS staff.

The assertion has now found its way into the "Mailing lists"
document on the eGov MS web site, which asserts:

    Steering Committee list: [...] Archive access and subscription
    privileges are reserved for Steering Committee members only

The assertion (bis) conflicts with the OASIS rules in Member Section
Policy [3] which require that Steering Committee documents are
to be readable by all OASIS Members, not just by members of the
Member Section SC members or by Member Section members:

    5.4 Steering Committee Operation

    In accordance with the OASIS philosophy of democracy, openness,
    and accountability, all meeting minutes and Steering Committee
    activities will be published on the Steering Committee
    document folders or email list, which is archived and
    viewable by OASIS Members. Any OASIS member should be able to
    post email to the Member Section list and the Steering
    Committee list.

Cheers,

Robin Cover
OASIS, Chief Information Architect

====== References:

[1] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/egov-ms/200709/msg00000.html
     http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/egov-ms/document.php?document_id=25388
     http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/egov-ms/download.php/25388/e-gov%20SC%20Minutes%2007-09-12.pdf

[2] http://www.oasis-egov.org/mailing-lists

[3] http://www.oasis-open.org/who/ms_policy.php