[Sigia-l] The Menace

[karl fast]

> As it is, the greater IA community (you and me) is nothing more to
> these vultures than 'a market' in which commodities can be sold and
> branding can take place. In short, the IA community is being used
> for individual gain. We are being sent spam in the form of good
> intentions. You cannot dispute these observable facts.

Well, let me try to dispute these "observable facts."

Not a single person involved in AIfIA is making any money from this.
In fact, we are *spending* money to kickstart this.
  
  - To attend the Asilomar meeting most of us paid for this out of
    our own pocket.

  - most of us loaned money to AIfIA, interest-free, to pay lawyers
    and do the necessary paper work for getting charitable status.

  - nobody on the board or leadership council draws a salary or
    honorarium of any sort, nor do they expect to. Strictly volunteer.

I'm not sure why you are calling us "vultures" motivated stricly by
self-interest. AIfIA would never has been launched if it was not for
tireless effort by people who believe this is good for the field.

> b) they would have corresponded with this list (SIGIA) regarding their
> plans to create a 'voice' or organization for all practitioners of IA.

We had very serious debates about this. We were concerned that the
initiative would be perceived this way by some, though hopefully not
all.

However, we felt that in order to get things started we should lay
the foundation first and then announce. If we announced out
intentions we believed we would never get to first base--we'd spend
too much time figuring out the batting order (hmm, that's a flawed
analogy, but hopefully you get my point).

You raise a pile of other points, which others can address in
detail. But let me respond with some points.

 - We do want to be open to dialogue and discussion. I'm not sure
   why you perceive as being unwilling to do this. Enlighten me.

 - You criticize the theses as posted to aifia.org. Thank you. We
   did not as a group sign off on these, casting them out as the
   immutable wisdom of those who went to Asilomar. We do need
   discussion about them. I have issues with parts of it. But this
   does not mean AIfIA is a worthless, money-grubbing, initiative.

 - You criticize Adaptive Path, but they are a company that does IA
   work. They are not AIfIA. Nor are they IA. What are you
   criticizing? IA as a field, Adaptive Path, or AIfIA?

 - You criticize Peter's notion of findability and his unwillingness
   to openly discuss it. First, I know Peter well and think he is
   very willing to discuss it. Second, I thought you were
   criticizing AIfIA the organization, not an idea from one of its
   founders. How does this relate to AIfIA?

We expected AIfIA would generate criticism and questions.

We did *not* expect someone to describe our efforts as:
  
  - fraudulent
  - their sole interest lies in *self-promotion*
  - ignorant
  - only concerned with themselves and how they can *up-sell* to you  
  - bureaucracy-creators
  - vultures
  - these people operate within a personal agenda  

I never thought I would see such bile regarding our efforts.



--karl