Re: <nettime> process reporting?

[Geoffrey Goodell via Nettime-tmp <nettime-tmp@mail.ljudmila.org>]

Dear Thomas,

On Sat, 27 May 2023 at 10:08:40PM +0200, Thomas Gramstad via Nettime-tmp wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 27 May 2023, Ted Byfield via Nettime-tmp wrote:
> 
> > On 27 May 2023, at 14:33, Geoffrey Goodell wrote:
> > 
> > > So, let's start handing over the keys. Felix and Ted -- and yes,
> > > thank you very much for your service -- have you started handing
> > > over control to Menno and Geert and company? And if not, why not?
> > 
> > I've already answered this question in two ways on the list: (1) we're
> > not going to fall back on first-mover advantage, and (2) the proposal
> > was misinformed or, less benignly, misleading about potential
> > moderators. Now I'll add two more: (3) it's already led to one on-list
> > message with bizarre and borderline ad-hominem accusations involving
> > "endless"(?!) teenage spats, "dark unspecified hints of bad faith," and
> > an analogy to Bismarck; and, off-list, (4) the proposal's own advocates
> > can't seem to get their stories straight about who is or isn't involved.
> > We won't be bum-rushed into that or any other proposal by a handful of
> > aggressive voices. And if it feels like any proposal is being pushed in
> > ways that shut down or preclude further discussion, that's probably a
> > pretty good indicator of the approach they'd bring to running the list.
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Ted
> 
> I would add even one more concern to the ones that Ted raised:
> 
> I think it is important that the technical host organization is
> a collective functioning with a long time horizon -- and not a
> Single Person Organization that may collapse when the founder
> fades away or retires. From what I understand (admittedly from
> far away), there are concerns that INC is an SPO.

And I think it is important for us to have a pony, as well!

This is a wishlist item.  You're right about the SPO problem, but I would argue
that it has been with us since the beginning, and the scenario you describe is
precisely the scenario we are in right now.  Moreover, is KEIN or Ljudmila
anything other than an SPO?  Specifying a requirement that Nettime would have a
characteristic that it had never had before as a prerequisite for its survival
is silly.

Who gets to decide whether a proposal is 'good enough' or not?  Surely it
should be the people with the most interest in continuing the list.  Forget
about 'legacy' considerations.  At least some of us here want to see the list
continue.  If the best we can scrounge in terms of hosting or management looks
like an SPO to some of us, then so be it.

We need specific metrics for evaluating a proposal before we can reject it fairly.
What are the minimum requirements?  What specific functions do we need?

I can think of a few:

(a) a leadership team of at least one person;

(b) accountability of this leadership team to the list membership, supported by
communication and consensus;

(c) a physical (well, maybe virtual is OK) server for which we have permission
to run mailman or similar software;

(d) a reliable public Internet connection with a static IP address for that
server, and without firewall rules that block the aforementioned mail server;

(e) DNS records for that server, including all of the SPF/DKIM entries that we
need in the post-2017 era;

(f) someone with the right skills committed to maintaining the server,
including its hardware, network connectivity, operating system, and software
stack; and

(g) someone with the right skills committed to managing the mailing list
operation and mail server, who can respond tactically to problems as they
arise.

Do we need anything else?

Which of those seven criteria did Menno's proposal not satisfy?  Let's be
specific, so that we can help fill in the gaps.  Let's do it on the list, so
that it is clear that we are not just rejecting proposals out of hand without
considering how they might be improved.

It is OK for there to be multiple proposals, or even for multiple people to
offer to contribute to different functions listed above.  The more the merrier;
we need to see what we have.

We're doing this in good faith -- let's get it done.

Best wishes --

Geoff

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