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Mike Carden | 6 Apr 2011 00:15
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Linux Australia values statement

One of the key documents that the LA Council has been working on is a
statement of our core values as an organisation. Please find below a
draft set of values for review and for your constructive input. We
recognise that capturing something as individual and important as
values in a shared way is quite a challenge, but we are optimistic in
believing that as a community we have enough in common to articulate
some shared principles.

You may note that the word Linux does not appear in this draft. We
feel that the shared values of the community extend beyond Linux and
we want to know if you agree. It's also important to note that these
values are not a contract. As a member of LA you're not bound by these
statements, but we would like to see them reflect a broad
understanding of what you think is important.

Please try to make your contribution relevant and useful. Rather than
"I don't like XXXX, it's rubbish", please offer something like "I
don't think XXXX quite describes that well enough. How about YYYY?" In
other words, patches are welcome. :-)

Linux Australia Draft Statement of Values

As an organisation, we aim to represent and assist Open Source
communities in Australia. In doing so, we aim to uphold certain
values, reflecting the core values surrounding open technologies. The
community is diverse in many ways, and has many different needs that
should be addressed and supported to the best of our ability. These
needs are cast here as the essential values that we aim to embody,
embrace and promote.
These values should inform the strategic direction,
(Continue reading)

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Ben Sturmfels | 6 Apr 2011 03:10
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Re: Linux Australia values statement

Hi Mike and Council,

Good work on expressing LA's core values. Here's a few thoughts on the 
draft.

> As an organisation, we aim to represent and assist Open Source
> communities in Australia.

A significant number of participants consider themselves to be part of 
the Free Software movement, rather than the Open Source movement, so I'd 
suggest making an explicit mention of Free Software:

"As an organisation, we aim to represent and assist the Free Software 
and Open Source communities in Australia."

> We value the freedom to license intellectual property via any license
> an author chooses, and we strongly encourage the use of open licenses.

This sounds like you're saying that developers should have the freedom 
to encroach on individuals' control their computing. I'm sure this isn't 
what you mean. Also, by using the propaganda term "intellectual 
property", your roping in a whole lot of un-related issues, ie. 
copyright, patent, trademark and registered design laws. I'd suggest 
replacing this sentence with:

"We endorse the use of free software and free culture copyright licenses."

Hope that helps.

Regards,
(Continue reading)

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elliott-brennan | 6 Apr 2011 04:50
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Re: Linux Australia values statement

Just like to add that I really like and support 
Ben's comments.

Regards,

Patrick

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On 06/04/11 12:00, 
linux-aus-request@... wrote:
> Hi Mike and Council,
>
SNIP
> "As an organisation, we aim to represent and
> assist the Free Software and Open Source
> communities in Australia."
>
SNIP
> This sounds like you're saying that developers
> should have the freedom to encroach on
> individuals' control their computing. I'm sure
> this isn't what you mean. Also, by using the
> propaganda term "intellectual property", your
(Continue reading)

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Russell Coker | 6 Apr 2011 05:15
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Re: Linux Australia values statement

On Wed, 6 Apr 2011, Mike Carden <mike.carden@...> wrote:
> Open Technology
> 
> The foundations of Linux Australia are in all facets of open
> technology. By this we mean openness in source code, standards,
> formats, licences and APIs. Whether for software sources, documents,
> hardware designs, images, works of art etc, we value the use of open
> licenses to promote the creative reuse of intellectual effort.
> 
> Open source makes code available to everyone to study, modify,
> repurpose and redistribute. We value the innovation made possible by
> the sharing of openly licensed intellectual effort.

I'd like to see a mention of Creative Commons licenses.  I think that the 
values should encompass more than just software.  If nothing else there have 
been issues in the past with documentation licenses not being as free as 
software licenses so this is an important issue.

Also I think that some statement regarding patents might be useful.  It's not 
something that I would normally suggest for an organisation such as LA, but 
given the direction that you are taking it seems to fit.

> Freedom
> 
> We value freedom in the use and development of open technologies. This
> encompasses freedom of expression within accepted community norms,
> though not the freedom to behave in a manner disrespectful to others.
> 
> We value the freedom to license intellectual property via any license
> an author chooses, and we strongly encourage the use of open licenses.
(Continue reading)

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home | 6 Apr 2011 05:02
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Re: Linux Australia values statement

On 6 April 2011 09:10, Ben Sturmfels <ben@...> wrote:
> "As an organisation, we aim to represent and assist the Free Software
> and Open Source communities in Australia."
>
> "We endorse the use of free software and free culture copyright licenses."

Thank you to those who drafted the values statement, and thank you to
Ben who has addressed the issues which I identified but hadn't yet
found appropriate words to describe.

Cheers,
Greg.

--

-- 
Gregory Orange
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Mary Gardiner | 6 Apr 2011 05:46
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Re: Linux Australia values statement

On Wed, Apr 06, 2011, Russell Coker wrote:
> Is LA limited in scope to Australia?  We have had some LCAs in NZ which seems 
> to indicate a slightly broader scope.

This is probably a discussion worth having.

Evidence in favour of scope being primarily Australia:
 - it's in the name of our organisation!

 - the most likely other jurisdiction, New Zealand, already has the New Zealand
   Open Source Society http://nzoss.org.nz/ From their About page: "NZOSS
   represents Free and Open Source users, creators and contributors in New
   Zealand by promoting software, representing the interests of the community
   to Government and the education sector. It also supports community user
   groups." which sounds similar in nature to this values statement.

 - IIRC almost all our political advocacy etc has been to the Australian government

(Possible) evidence against:

 - we've held two major events in New Zealand

 - some of our active members are in New Zealand, and a (smaller?) number in
   other countries

If I was personally wording something about scope I'd probably say something
like "Linux Australia focusses on Australia, and also on regional partnerships
and events where they are of benefit to the Australian community." (Again, open
to debate, but I at least suspect that LA would be less likely to award LCA to
an NZ city if it wasn't clear that so many Australians are happy to attend.)
(Continue reading)

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Neill Cox | 6 Apr 2011 05:28
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Re: Linux Australia values statement

Another +1 to Ben's comments.

I really would like to see Free Software mentioned rather than just Open Source

Cheers,
Neill

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Russell Coker | 6 Apr 2011 06:02
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Re: Linux Australia values statement

On Wed, 6 Apr 2011, Mary Gardiner <mary@...> wrote:
> > If LA is to be focused on Australia then I think that a stronger
> > statement  about free formats for documentation from the public sector
> > would be good. There is a heap of data on the abs.gov.au site that is in
> > non-free formats which decreases it's usefulness to people who don't use
> > MS-Windows as well as to people who use MS-Windows in 10 years time.
> 
> There's probably a tradeoff somewhere between "values" and "campaigns",
> where campaigns are specific actions/requests/causes that we undertake
> because of our values. I know the draft Values crosses into specific
> actions/stances on particular issues already a bit, but I wonder if this
> isn't more of a campaign/call kind of thing.

In that case perhaps we should have a separate statement that covers things 
like public sector data and skip it entirely from the values statement.

Maybe a more general statement about open data formats that doesn't mention 
public sector data would be more in scope for the values statement.

--

-- 
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Kathy Reid | 6 Apr 2011 06:02
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Re: Linux Australia values statement

This is an great start, and I also +1 Ben's comments.

These values accurately represent the foundation values and raison 
d'etre of Linux Australia. There is perhaps one gap that is not shown 
here - aiming for excellence and continuous improvement - "excellence". 
As an organisation that by its actions shows a dedication to increased 
maturity over time - such as the recent work on financials - I believe 
it's appropriate to have Excellence as a core value.

Recommend the following is committed to core :-)

Excellence

Linux Australia strives to deliver the best outcome, behave in the most 
appropriate manner and continuously strive for excellence in all that it 
does, within the constraints of available resources. Suggestions for 
improvement will be regularly sought from the community, and regular 
reviews of activities will be undertaken to increase the maturity of 
future iterations. Openness and transparency in Council operations lead 
to excellence through constructive feedback from the Linux Australia 
community.

Regards,
K.
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