what I am prepared to engage in and what I am not prepared to engage in with my energy--the archives

[Lisa]

Birgitt ---

I respect you for telling your truth and naming what feels right and
what does not feel right to you.  Thank you for sharing it with us.

I can of course only speak for myself.  So for myself I say, I welcome
anyone who wishes to use any words or thoughts I have shared, any
materials I have created, to use it in any way they wish.  I trust that
you all will use it with good intention, and I feel greatly respected
when you ask me and let me know how and in what context you will use it.
But if it can help you in any way, it is yours to share.  I say this to
folks on this list and anyone who finds my words out there in internet
land through this list, my website, a handout from a workshop or
anything else that carries my written words.

My learnings from Harrison's example (and it resonates with what I have
always thought) is that information is not to be owned, but to be
shared, for the strength and betterment of us all.  So I for one am
happy that our conversations are available to anyone who may have an
interest.

At the same time I fully understand how you may feel, Birgitt, as you
may have had different experiences than me in your life and in the world
of people using or catching your words out of context and so on.  And I
thank you for naming what you are comfortable with and what you are not
comfortable with.  I am curious - did you actually go back and copyright
your words in the archive / conversations on this list to date?  That is
important for me to know, should I wish to quote you.  Of course I would
do you the honor of asking for your permission and showing you how I
might like to use your words - but if they (the great responses,
solutions and uses of the method you have shared) are copywritten, I
will need to learn more about such things to see how legally I may
document your approval for use and so on (thanks for sharing what you
know about this process).

It is my understanding that Michael took the initiative to broaden
access as a service to a world learning about Open Space, and I for one
support the passion and personal responsibility that guided him - the
same thing that happens in an Open Space event that forms community and
cares for it.  My reading of his offer and action was that it was done
out of love and generosity.

Birgitt, I honor you for speaking your truth, and the courage it can
take to put such painful feelings into words.

Warmly,

Lisa

________________________________

L i s a   H e f t
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
O p e n i n g  S p a c e
2325 Oregon
Berkeley, California
94705-1106   USA
+01 510 548-8449
 <mailto:lisaheft at pacbell.net> lisaheft at pacbell.net
www.openingspace.net

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Birgitt Williams
Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 6:53 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: what I am prepared to engage in and what I am not prepared to
engage in with my energy--the archives

Dear friends and colleagues on the list,
I have done considerable thinking and meditating about the existence of
the archives of this list and about the fact that the list is now open
to being searchable through the world wide web. It appears that I cannot
do anything about the decisions made. I am sad that we do not have a
democratic process in this community for decision making and I am sad
that decisions are made on behalf of a community by a few. Those
decisions are then recorded in the FAQ's and captured as what appear to
be the 'givens' for this community.

I have read a number of items regarding building community for list
serves, the importance of protection and safety for its members so that
the community is a real community. I am deeply saddened that through the
opening of our list to world wide web in the way that it has been opened
now by a decision made by someone who has the power to do this on our
behalf without a decision making process within the community, that in
my opinion we no longer have a community. People can access our
conversations without ever taking the responsibility of identifying
themselves to us. There is no equal energy exchange between these people
and those who contribute to the list by participating in community
either as speakers or listening learners. Also, when our list archives
are accessible through the search engines on the www, our e-mail
addresses are now available to the public whether we want them to be or
not. And as you all know, this means that these addresses are now likely
to be 'harvested' by the spiders who 'harvest' e-mail addresses to send
out spam mail to them. We have been opened to this and without the
community permission. From my perspective, any belief that there is now
a community is an illusion. I have invested a lot of my time, energy,
heart in contributions to the list for many years in my passion about
what I believed was an important community. I am so so sad at this
violation.

Some years ago, on the list, I was made aware that the list had archives
and it was happily announced at the time that the archives could be
accessed by anyone on the list. I was fairly unfamiliar at the time with
how all of this worked and I was deeply disturbed that there were
archives and I spoke against them at the time, only to be told by
Harrison and others that I was naive if I had assumed there were no
archives captured for the list.  I noted for myself that everyone who
accessed the archives had to sign in to the list, and so I fell silent
on the subject thinking that in a very arms length way, these people, by
signing in to the list to get to the archives were also part of the
list.

Over time, most people on the list who used my materials from the list
also used great professional courtesy and sent me a note about the
intended use to get my permission, knowing that once words are written,
it is like a copyright on those words. I was grateful to these people. I
always gave permission to use my words but sometimes I asked for a
change to include more context so that my words kept the same meaning
that I intended them to have by being kept in the context in which they
were written. When my words have been used out of context by people who
did not have the professional courtesy of letting me know they were
using them and indeed publishing them, that was another situation and
one that I haven't known how to deal with.

For me, the recent announcement by Michael Herman that the archives are
now open to be searchable on the world wide web was one to which I
immediately expressed my dismay. I realize that I cannot change what is
being done by people who have power on our behalf. I don't even know who
they are because they have never identified themselves as our executive
or some such. But, they appear to be the decison makers.

I cannot do anything to change this situation that has troubled me so
much. I can however express my own needs very very clearly so that they
are not misunderstood. I have been a significant contributor to this
community through this list almost since it began. I did this to support
this community to the best of my ability and to do my part in assisting
with the building of this community to the best of my ability. I didn't
do this to assist in the creation of a data base that would be used by
researchers and others. My vested interest was in community support and
community strengthening. Archives of this list have been kept  and it
has been without my permission to keep archives of my writing and they
have been kept without letting us know from the beginning that a 'given'
of this list was to have archives. Archives of this which includes my
contributions have now been opened to the worldwide web and its search
engines without my permission to use my contributions in this way.

I am hereby giving notice to those who have made this decision that my
contributions are copyrighted and that anyone using my contributions to
the world wide web in any paper, article, thesis, or book that they are
writing must request my permission to do so. I am holding those who made
my contributions available to the search engines of the worldwide web
accountable for my copyrighted material which I made available for one
purpose and is now being used for another purpose to which I did not
agree. I am deeply concerned that my materials be quoted by noting the
context in which they are written and not pulled apart piecemeal
creating the illusion that I have said or implied something that I did
not say or imply. I request that those on this list who have made the
decision to put make our archives available to the world wide web search
engines identify themselves to the list so that I know who the decision
makers on this list are and so that I know who to hold accountable.

I am also deeply concerned that my sharing from the heart including
sharing about my personal life which I did a lot in the early days of
this community has become available to others for whom it was not
written, to now read.  In my research, I have discovered that most
designs for lists intended for community never violate that community. I
am not naive to have made assumptions that we were a community and that
our sharing was for our community. This is a clear situation of 'givens'
being made along the way,on behalf of a community, by a few in power.
Again, this information is copyrighted and permission must be asked of
me to publish this information in any way. Again, I am holding the
decision makers on this list who have made my contributions to this list
community available to search engines on the world wide web accountable
for the  protection of my copyrighted material.

I have loved this list community as an important part of my life for a
long time. It is my hope that there will be some understanding of what I
am prepared to engage in and what I am not prepared to engage in with my
energy and that my decision about the materials that I have submitted to
the list over the years falls within my definition for myself of what I
am available for and what I am not. I am available to contribute to this
community.

Birgitt Williams
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