Public Domain

[Fred Sturm]

	For may part, I am, without reservation, in favor of free and open public 
access to the list. I think we do a reasonably good job of 
"self-moderating." (BTW, it is always best that posts chiding someone for 
being off-topic or the like be sent privately to that person, in the 
interest of avoiding the dreaded flame war mentality).
	My point in writing "discretion is advised" (in the post that set off this 
thread) was to note that there are some things we should not air publicly, 
for a number of reasons. Procurement is a very touchy area, and one where 
there is a danger of causing harm to one's own institution or to a 
manufacturer. When I asked for advice on how to approach procurement, I 
received a number of posts off-list for that very reason - the colleagues 
who sent them did not want to "air the dirty linen of their institution" in 
public (nothing illegal involved, just descriptions of contentious 
processes, which had resulted in hard feelings). Wim's comment that he had 
evaluation sheets ready for purchasing if required is the sort of thing 
that can come back and haunt one.
	I don't think we need to feel paranoid, but we do need to be discrete.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

--On Monday, March 15, 2004 7:14 AM -0500 McNeilTom@aol.com wrote:
> snip<
> I will go on record as in favor of the simplicity of keeping the list
> 'self-moderating' just for simplicity's sake.  Seems to work OK for the
> most part.
> - Tom McNeil -
> Vermont Piano Restorations