[LUAU] Hello - My Name is HOSEF

[Dave Burns]

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 4:13 PM, Jim Thompson <jim at netgate.com> wrote:
>  I've been warned away from the Hawaiian Studies group(s) at UH.

Actually this does not much surprise me and it would not surprise me
much if it turned out that teaming with them ended up being
counter-productive or impossible. But it seems  to me that HOSEF lacks
access to grants and skills in Hawaiian language that the kuokoa
project would really benefit from and I think that is why it has
stagnated and why it will continue to stagnate. Maybe there are
scholars at BYU or HPU or wherever that we could recruit, or maybe
someone else has a vision for making the project go without a grant or
a credentialed expert, which I think would be great. I don't see how
this connects to the current controversy (ewaste or no ewaste), but
maybe it does not and was not intended to.

It might help me be less confused if I knew what the board has
actually done and what Jim would like to see the board do in the
future. At the beginning of the controversy, I thought that the board
had actually sacked Scott and called a halt to anything to do with
e-waste. Jim seems to be saying that very little has actually been
done. It would really help me to know what changes are being proposed.

I am getting the impression that Jim would like most activities to
continue, but with new shiny hardware donated by someone who is
willing to pay for new shiny hardware, not old scruffy hardware
donated by people who mostly want to be rid of it. And Jim thinks
Scott needs to be more conscientious about getting clearance from the
board before taking certain actions. I have the impression that Scott
was deeply offended by some of the emails, but I am not clear whether
he wants to quit, to fork, to fight for the status quo, or make some
sort of compromise where ewaste is less of a priority or done away
with and he is more careful with respect to board approval.

I have been trying to at least appear neutral and give Jim a fair
chance, but I think I need to say that I know and trust Scott and I
admire the work he has done for HOSEF, so the way in which Jim's
accusations against Scott appeared and the ideas for changing HOSEF
all struck me as very negative and surprising. It seems possible to me
that Scott has stepped over some boundaries and needs censure or
discipline, it even seems possible (though unlikely) that it would be
better for HOSEF that he step down as ED.  But the way that these
things have been handled has made me confused and upset, and it has
also seemed possible that the whole thing is some personal vendetta or
power sturggle between Scott and Jim. I don't know, I am not accusing
anyone of anything except this, that neither the board nor Scott made
it clear what was going on, what was at stake, and in Jim's case, what
HOSEF would look like if he got his way.

I have two old Sun servers that I was going to donate to HOSEF. Does
HOSEF still want them?

Dave