The debian-private mailing list leak, part 1. Volunteers have complained about Blackmail. Lynchings. Character assassination. Defamation. Cyberbullying. Volunteers who gave many years of their lives are picked out at random for cruel social experiments. The former DPL's girlfriend Molly de Blanc is given volunteers to experiment on for her crazy talks. These volunteers never consented to be used like lab rats. We don't either. debian-private can no longer be a safe space for the cabal. Let these monsters have nowhere to hide. Volunteers are not disposable. We stand with the victims.
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Re: [RFC] Restructuring of the Debian Project

bruce@pixar.com (Bruce Perens)  wrote on 05.03.97 in <m0w2Q5u-00Is7HC@golem.pixar.com>:

> My idea of the "Truly Open Standards":
>
> 1. They are available in digitial form (probably HTML) on the net, for free.

Actually, these days, POSIX and similar standards are usually available  
for free as long as they are in draft stage. You just have to find them.

> 2. They come with GPL-ed validation suite software.

Write some.

> 3. You self-certify by running the validation suite and posting results.
> 4. Any end-user can check you out for fraud by re-running validation.

If you have 2, this automatically follows. You just change "meets IEEE  
xxx" to "passes the bla suite" to be on firm legal grounds.

> 5. No big expensive committees flying around and having meetings at
>    posh resorts. Thus, no need to make money for the standard.

I don't know of *any* standard that works that way. Really, where do you  
get those ideas?

Usually, committee members get paid by their employers, and those  
employers pay for them flying around; the standards organization only pay  
for the bureaucracy. That, and printing, is what they want the money for.

Incidentally, there's ECMA, who publishes their stuff for free. That may  
be because ECMA is the European Computer Manufacturers Association - that  
is, their members are used to paying for standards creation, not to  
charging for standards distribution.

And I gather all the computer standards committees would much rather have  
the standards available for free, too. Or at least for reasonable prices  
(like other computer books, that is).

> 6. Absolutely no fees attached to compliance or certification.

In the 2-4 scenario, that's a given.

> Debian / Software in the Public Interest is the perfect organization to
> serve as the seed for development of this. I was hoping it would be our
> next project, and that Debian would not be our only project. However, it
> is practical to do it as a separate organization as well.

This may, or may not work; however, I don't think it would be wise to have  
standards that conflict with what the rest of the industry uses. Of  
course, in some areas, there is no "what the rest of the industry uses" -  
which is why we have, for example, the FSSTD/FHS and the Debian Policy  
manual.

MfG Kai