[Fsatom-comm] New committee ; mailing lists

[Konrad Hinsen]

On Tuesday 28 October 2003 20:00, Xavier Gonze wrote:

> So, we have to make a decision :
> - is it OK if we start the forum mailing list, with the
>   same list of people that are registered presently on the general list ?
> - then, at the end of each mail submitted to one of these lists, one should
> have a message stating how to unsubscribe from that particular list
> - the use of the lists will be described (accurate, but brief) on the
>   FSAtom site.

Sounds fine.

> There has been no reaction about the other current issue for the committee
> : should we try to include one quantum chemist ? if so, would Mark Gordon
> be OK or shall we try to find somebody else ?
> Without any reaction of yours, I am really puzzled on the best thing to do
> ...

Me too, which is why I didn't comment yet.

The question is not really a personal one, at least not for me, I consider 
Mark Gordon a perfectly suitable candidate. The question is about the goals 
of FSAtom. I'd rather discuss that question directly than through the 
backdoor of committee membership.

The current stated goal of FSAtom is to encourage the adoption of the free 
software model, in any of its dialects, by the scientific community clustered 
around atomic-scale simulations. On the other hand, all our activities up to 
now have been about techniques and open standards that are certainly useful 
for free software, but also for scientific software development and use in 
general. The questions we should discuss are

1) Do we consider free software (in the sense of the four freedoms) as an
   important part of FSAtom? Alternatively, we could reorient ourselves to
  "open standards" and/or "modern software techniques". Or we could
   adopt a more restricted sense of "free" software, but then we should
   also choose a different term to avoid confusion.

2) How much agreement with the stated goals do we expect from committee
   members? Personally, I think it is important for credibility to have
   committee members that at least morally support the ideas of the
   organization. I wouldn't mind having someone who supports free
   software but can't write any because his/her employer prevents it.
   But Mark's position, if I understood it correctly, is that he doesn't
   consider free software a good idea because he considers the
   freedom for redistribution detrimental to support. I respect his
   opinion, of course, but it is not compatible with the current goals
   of FSAtom.

In summary, I see two options, both of which are fine with me:

1) We do accept Mark, but change our formal goal to something less specific.
2) We look for a committee member who supports our current goals.

Konrad.

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