Sponsor Ballot Group confidentiality

[Colin Mick--The Mick Group <ckm@mickgroup.com>]

My $0.02:

We have (at least) three groups: working group membership, working group
voters and Sponsor Ballot Group members.

Working group membership is defined by the WG email list; WG voter status
is defined by WG rules. Both these groups self-select and have committed to
some length of general participation. I see nothing wrong with reasonable
(read no marketing) public access to working group membership data and I
would like to see a little more availability of voter status. 

I view Sponsor Ballot group members somewhat differently.  They have
volunteered to participate in a single specific task--to do final review of
a draft standard.  My take has been that because they have volunteered to
do a specific task, they are entitled to confidentiality.  As far as I
know, we don't generate email lists for Sponsor Ballot Groups.  The
standards office sends multiple address messages to announce ballots, but I
use a bulk mailer to communicate with this group to ensure confidentiality
of individual email addresses. I'd be happy to see a name and affiliation
(but  no contact info) for Sponsor Ballot groups and all electronic contact
done on an individual address basis. 

That said, I find the "who" command of major domo to be very useful to
maintain lists and check for address changes--or, indeed, to find an email
address.  I think this is a tool which should be open to members of the list.

Colin



Colin K. Mick
The Mick Group
2130 Hanover St,
Palo Alto, CA  94306
voice: (650) 856-3666
FAX: (650) 494-3737
email: ckm@mickgroup.com
URL: www.mickgroup.com