Groklaw shutting down in May [LWN.net]

Groklaw shutting down in May

Posted Apr 10, 2011 17:44 UTC (Sun) by spaetz (subscriber, #32870)
In reply to: Groklaw shutting down in May by FlorianMueller
Parent article: Groklaw shutting down in May

I received the Economist Group's EU Campaigner of the Year Award in 2005.

The one you initially declined and returned as it seems to have been sponsored and potentially influenced by Microsoft? :-) Yes, I remember that. From your mail ( http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj/2005/11/).

Initially, I accepted the category award, not enthusiastically but because I did not want to cause any impression of an emotional overreaction by immediately declining it.[...] Before the photograph, I gave the award trophy back to Mr. Dennis Landsbert-Noon, the publisher of the European Voice, and left.[...]

In his acceptance speech, he [Rocard, a MEP] mentioned Microsofts sponsorship of the EV50 awards several times.[...]

Mr. Rocard could additionally have mentioned that Burson-Marsteller, a PR and lobbying firm with offices in many cities including Brussels, counts Microsoft (as well as other corporations with a similar position on software patents) among its clients. Burson-Marsteller was involved in the organization of the EV50.

I told Mr. Landsbert-Noon that I had, after serious consideration, 'decided not to accept the award', and that I will issue further statements after obtaining legal advice.

It has been called unhelpful zig-zag behavior. I know you accepted it a month later despite you saying that you think it's unlikely the voting was representative :

All in all, one would be hard-pressed to find a plausible explanation for the outcome of the EV50 vote. There are some theoretical answers, but they arent too likely. The organizers decided that total intransparency is in their best interest, so were left in the dark as to what exactly happened.

Unfortunately, your slashdot journal has been deleted (OMG, slashdot censorship??!?), so I could not link to the original source. Mmh, seems like a great achievement to me. SCNR, I'll stop now.

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Groklaw shutting down in May

Posted Apr 10, 2011 17:47 UTC (Sun) by spaetz (subscriber, #32870) [Link]

mmh, the zig-zack link points to the wrong place, it's supposed to point here: http://www.ipjur.com/2005/11/anti-patent-campaigners-in-t...

Can we get the 5 minute embargo in which I can still edit my own article even after publishing please?

Groklaw shutting down in May

Posted Apr 10, 2011 18:09 UTC (Sun) by zooko (subscriber, #2589) [Link]

You know what would be even more awesome? A five-minute embargo during which nobody other than you can yet see your contribution. :-)

Not saying there was anything wrong with yours in particular, but everyone including me would be well served by time to reflect and by a slower pace of conversation.

Regards,

Zooko

Groklaw shutting down in May

Posted Apr 10, 2011 18:31 UTC (Sun) by spaetz (subscriber, #32870) [Link]

> Not saying there was anything wrong with yours in particular, but everyone including me would be well served by time to reflect and by a slower pace of conversation.

I agree. Such a 5-minute embargo would be quite useful indeed. For everything more hot-headed than this, there could be an IRC channel :-).

Groklaw shutting down in May

Posted Apr 10, 2011 18:37 UTC (Sun) by jrn (subscriber, #64214) [Link]

Hear, hear! I wonder if it's possible to make a browser extension or greasemonkey script to simulate this in the meantime (so one could see the proposed comment in context and reflect).

Groklaw shutting down in May

Posted Apr 10, 2011 17:49 UTC (Sun) by FlorianMueller (guest, #32048) [Link]

After that disagreement over the process I had some follow-up correspondence with the European Voice. I won't disclose the details of that discussion, but the net effect is that I was always listed as the winner of the award (currently on this page), also in the European Voice weekly, and the European Voice quoted me in connection with Oracle/Sun, which I believe demonstrates that neither they nor I had any problem with a past disagreement.