Ozcons information

[Alison Wain <alison@orac.net.au>]

First up an apology - Penny's message took a while to get out because I
have been having computer problems - all fixed now though. 

In response to your query Penny - the form of the Copyright section of
the Charter was based on the Information page for the Risks Forum which
is long-running mailing list on the subject of computer related mailing
lists. So although I have no idea of its absolute legal status I guess
you could say it is based on something which has not had any obvious
problems that I know of. The address for this list in case anyone wants
to check its info page out is:

http://www.csl.sri.com/risksinfo.html

I suppose I figure that anyone can misapply any information - think of
all the do-it-yourself products sold every day. I know when I use
something like a paint stripper I use a lot of my technical knowledge to
evaluate which one I want and why, what the real hazards of using it
are, and why the manufacturers say to use it in a particular way.
Statements like "Wash off the surface without using too much water" are
very open to different interpretations, but I figure what they mean is
don't soak the thing so you get splits in the wood. However a
non-conservator might well ask how much is too much water? And why is
that a problem? And then not use enough water to get the residues off
the object because they are worried about using too much.

You have to allow that all information is open to different
interpretations - I just think that the more information is freely
available the more people are likely to pick out the important points
from the incidentals - instead of just reading one article or book they
can read a whole discussion on a subject. I get really cross when people
start limiting access to information because they think they're some
sort of higher life form. If it's about making people pay to join the
special interst group because they need the funds to maintain their
activities well that's their business - I think they'll be the losers.
But to pretend it's for "the good of others" - please. 

Many of the really great breakthroughs in science have arisen because
someone in one filed has heard about techniques used in another field
and realised the possiblities of transferring the ideas or technology.
And this usually happens through chance meetings or browsing while
looking for other information. If everyone were to limit access to
information to "approved queries" serendipity would be almost dead.

Er - have I ranted long enough? 

Alison