[Noisebridge-discuss] Apologies for the inconvenience

Thu Apr 3 00:22:23 UTC 2014

On April 2, 2014 4:49:16 PM PDT, Al Sweigart <asweigart at gmail.com> wrote:
> Naomi, if I agreed with that I would say that you should step down as
> board
> member, since your two full-time jobs will sometimes keep you from
> promptly
> responding to board email threads. But changing board processes to be
> more
> accommodating is how we're handling that, not by excluding people from
> the
> board.
> 
> You're right and Tom's right: Noisebridge isn't brittle, Tom can miss
> a
> couple meetings and just review the notes. But Noisebridge is brittle
> in
> that when Tom makes a wiki edit based on an ambiguity in our consensus
> process, suddenly Kevin reads this as malicious abuse of power and
> calls
> for Tom's removal.
> 
> I can understand Tom's concern. I don't understand how him stepping
> down as
> secretary fixes anything.
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 1:06 PM, Naomi Most <pnaomi at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Tom,
> >
> > I think you should step down as Secretary, and I think you should
> step
> > down from all of the extra duties you've assigned yourself.
> >
> > Noisebridge is not as fragile as you think.
> >
> > Your friend,
> > Naomi
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 12:35 PM, Tom Lowenthal <me at tomlowenthal.com>
> > wrote:
> > > Contrary to the extensive rumors, I am not a Cylon or any other
> type of
> > robot.
> > > * Pros: I am not secretly infiltrating human society as part of
> the
> > > advanced scouts for an invasion fleet.
> > > * Cons: I occasionally make mistakes.
> > >
> > > I'm sorry about that, and I'm especially sorry about making
> mistakes
> > > which make your life harder.
> > >
> > > I think that I have a pretty low error rate, but I do a lot of
> > > Noisbridge malarkey. That means I'm going to make a relatively
> > > constant number of errors. I would very much like it if you could
> > > interpret  my mistakes acts of a reasonable & well-meaning person
> who
> > > messed up. If you know about things I've already done wrong,
> please
> > > tell me about them. That's the only way I can help fix them.
> > >
> > > The best way to do that is by email. You can send one to
> > > <me at tomlowenthal.com> if it's about me, or
> <secretary at noisebridge.net>
> > > if it's all official-like. Please write clear emails with
> descriptive
> > > subject-lines¹. Explain what went wrong and what I should do to
> make
> > > it right. If I don't answer after a day or two, send me a
> follow-up.
> > > Please be understanding if I don't resolve the problem
> immediately.
> > > Noisebridge isn't my job, and doesn't have an SLA. Even I need
> > > wrangling to get stuff done.
> > >
> > > * * * * *
> > >
> > > Dealing with membership is one of the hardest things I do. Our
> > > membership workflow is a work of mad genius: fragile and prone to
> > > breakage. It's not very transparent: I'm the only person who can
> check
> > > my work and that's a recipe for mistakes. This is one of the
> reasons
> > > I'd like the member list to be less secret. When I make inevitable
> > > mistakes, I'd like someone else to be able to catch them sooner
> rather
> > > than later.
> > >
> > > Other Noisebridge processes are similarly brittle. When you see me
> do
> > > something wrong, is it a mistake, a misunderstanding, or
> malicious?
> > > It's hard to tell. That's why I want to write more stuff down. If
> we
> > > write things down, we know what we've agreed, and then there's
> less
> > > room for mistakes & misunderstandings.
> > >
> > > -Tom
> > > --
> > >
> > > P.S. I'm not going to be at the next few Tuesday meetings because
> of a
> > > neat workshop series at Stanford CIS. Next week I'm running a
> workshop
> > > on using TorBrowser. On the 18th, I'll be in the audience, as
> Bruce
> > > Schneier tell us how to fix mass-surveillance. On the 22nd, I'll
> be
> > > running another workshop, this time on GPG. The events are all
> open to
> > > the public. You should come.
> > >
> > > April 8: <
> >
> https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/events/cis-tech-workshop-tom-lowenthal-browsing-tor-online-anonymity-outsmart-nsa
> > >
> > > April 15: <
> >
> https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/events/nsa-surveillance-and-what-do-about-it-evening-talk-bruce-schneier
> > >
> > > April 22: <
> >
> https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/events/cis-tech-workshop-tom-lowenthal-email-encryption-pretty-good-privacy-even-when-someones
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > ¹ If your email doesn't obviously distinguish itself from
> > > (all-to-real) complaints about how Noisebridge is in league with
> the
> > > tin-foil lobby to compromise the integrity of protective headgear,
> I
> > > may well miss it. Seriously. My inbox gets a lot of truly
> > > off-the-rails nonsense with a Noisebridge theme.
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> > > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> > > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Naomi Theora Most
> > naomi at nthmost.com
> > +1-415-728-7490
> >
> > skype: nthmost
> >
> > http://twitter.com/nthmost
> > _______________________________________________
> > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> >
> 
> 
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To be clear, I maintain that Tom abused secretary power when he altered the state of the policy repository. Most anyone can edit the wiki, but few administer the repo.

Do you agree that editing the outcome of a consensus decision in the notes warrants some communication with the note taker and dissenting members?

Others also have concerns with actions taken by Tom. They are documented in meeting notes from last night. 

I support a mediation for all to hear and be heard. In the mean time, delegating responsibility to others would be nice. 

-Kevin