[hpsdr] Why?

[John Ackermann N8UR]

I'm one of the people who was involved in the events.  We don't really 
know what led Phil to take the action he did; it came out of the blue, 
which was one of the troubling aspects.

Phil later gave some explanations in private email.  In my view, they in 
no way justified the action he took.  Further, Phil's email gave no 
indication that he wouldn't do the same thing again if he disagreed with 
the way the HPSDR project was being managed.  As a result, I felt the 
existence of HPSDR was being held hostage by one person, and that 
something needed to be done.

There is no formal HPSDR organization.  I guess that's a blessing or a 
curse, depending on the circumstances.  I can say that the people who 
were involved in the decisions of the last few weeks represent most of 
those who are associated with the main HPSDR project set and with the 
administration of the web site and mailing list.

openhpsdr.org is currently being maintained by TAPR at the request of 
that core group.

To my knowledge, none of the people in that group have a personal 
financial interest in any of the HPSDR projects.  I am a TAPR board 
member, and of course TAPR has had a financial involvement in production 
of HPSDR boards; as I mentioned in my post yesterday, that happens on a 
case-by-case basis solely at the developer's discretion.

John N8UR
OHL and NCL Author
Pandora Project Manager
----
Chris Down said the following on 05/13/2009 04:34 AM:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
> 
> Unfortunately this explanation lacks any detail as to what led Phil C to 
> to take such drastic action. Would it be possible for someone to explain 
> the sequence of events that led to this unfortunate and unnecessary 
> situation. As I said in my previous email, I am not taking any sides (I 
> have never had any contact with Phil C), it is just that a lot of people 
>  have invested time and money into the HPSDR project.
> 
> I have been passively following this project for a while and 
> contemplating getting involved in the project, however after recent 
> events I have some concerns.
> 
> Who makes the decisions on the direction of the project?
> 
> Do any of these people have any commercial interests that could 
> influence the direction of the project? If so this should be stated 
> publicly on the web site.
> 
> Who owns and controls the domain name openhpsdr.org? Unfortuantely the 
> owner as opted to protect the details by using a private registration 
> proxy.
> 
> What safeguards are in place to prevent a similar situation occurring in 
> future?
> 
> How many people have administration rights to the wiki and website and 
> who are these people?
> 
> Do you intend to allow registered members to edit wiki pages?
> 
> Perhaps the answers to the above should be documented as an overview of 
> the project administration structure on a wiki page.
> 
> Is there anything that can be done to reconcile the parties involved in 
> this? Perhaps people on both sides have acted impulsively and said and 
> done things that with hindsight could have been presented differently 
> and maybe now is the time to admit that, shake hands and move forward in 
> the interests of the community.
> 
> Sorry to ask so many questions and I know we would all rather be dealing 
> with technical issues. However I feel it is important to understand why 
> this situation occurred and what we as a community can do to prevent it 
> happening again and also prevent a split in the community.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Chris G8MXW
> 
> On 13/05/2009 00:01, Bill Tracey wrote:
>> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>>
>> The actions that Phil C. mentions on his web page all occurred after
>> Phil disabled hpsdr.org on or about the 12th of April, by redirecting it
>> to a "dummy" site. In addition to disabling the web site, this action
>> also disabled the mailing list so it was impossible to communicate to
>> the group what was happening. This was done with no warning to the
>> webmaster or system administrator, and with no explanation as to why it
>> was done. As a result of that action and further communications with
>> Phil C, there was great concern that the web site and mailing list were
>> at risk, and that a similar disruption could occur in the future.
>>
>> With great reluctance it was felt we had no choice but to put controls
>> in place that would limit the damage that could be done to the HPSDR
>> Internet resources. That included transition to a new domain
>> (openhpsdr.org) that Phil C. does not control, as well as protecting the
>> wiki from unlimited editing by someone who had clearly indicated he was
>> at odds with the direction of the project. Finally, Phil C. is incorrect
>> in saying that he was blocked from posting to the mailing list; he was
>> put on moderated status to allow review of his messages before posting,
>> but not unsubscribed or otherwise blocked.
> 
>> I do not believe anyone is trying to deny Phil C's significant
>> contributions to the HPSDR project. However, his recent actions
>> endangered the project itself and actions were taken to protect the
>> project that we've all invested much time and effort in.
> 
>>
>> I was involved in the discussions among many of the HPSDR contributors
>> behind these actions and support the actions that were taken.
>>
>> As to why this was done 'behind the scenes' - it was felt it would be
>> better to try and do this without having a nasty ugly fight in public.
>> In hind sight that may not have been the best approach.
>>
>> I hope this answers everyone's questions on what has happened, and we
>> can soon return to working on the HPSDR projects.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Bill (kd5tfd)
> 
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