roy at alanine.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes:
>If I really made an
>obnoxious pest of myself, I could imagine all my usenet neighbors might be
>persuaded to cut their connections to me, but I'd be very surprised (and
>shocked, and angry) if some official representitive of the US Government
>could force me to shut up.
Roy, you are absolutely correct; no one is going to force you to "shut
up" nor did I ask anyone to do so; I suggested instead that such
discussions be moved to other forums that do not having funding
strings attached.
I am asking this as a friend and as a collaborator with you on the
bionet.molbio.genbank.updates project. You are right that neither the
government nor IG nor I own these newsgroups. The only claim that I
can make is that I have worked hard for several years to establish
these forums as a service to the scientific community in addition to
the other services that I have helped provide to all of you via both
BIONET and the GenBank On-line Service. During the past years I have
never been able to devote the amount of time that I believe is needed
to turn BIOSCI into a really first class operation because of all of
my other obligations on BIONET and GenBank. I now have a grant which
is currently in the final stages of processing which will support a
part of my salary and part of Kenton Hoover's salary after the end of
the Genbank contract. I am looking forward finally to the opportunity
to work towards this goal. Due to the demise of GenBank here, without
this grant I could very well find myself unemployed in less than three
months. Many of the other members of my staff are facing similar
uncertain fates right now and I have assisted some of them in similar
granting efforts.
I DO NOT PERSONALLY MAKE THE RULES against political lobbying or, for
example, against the posting of commercial jobs on
EMPLOYMENT/bionet.jobs. These are regulations handed down to me from
the government, and it is part of my job to see that they are carried
out.
Do any of you honestly think that I don't value free speech???? I
wouldn't have devoted my time and energies to these forums if that was
true, but I did so precisely because I strongly believed (and still
do) that newsgroups gave all parties a chance to be heard without
intervention by an editorial elite. This runs the obvious risk of the
newsgroups degenerating into valueless noise, and I have battled that
criticism often in the past. On the other hand, I have also heard
many others say that, despite their initial doubts about the prospects
for success of this venture, the bionet groups have succeeded in being
remarkably self-regulating.
Do any of you honestly think that I wouldn't love to allow commercial
job postings?? I once during my academic career came within 12 hours
of losing my funding while my wife was pregnant; I have been
continually buffeted by other events over the last several years in my
roles on BIONET and GenBank. I *know* how important jobs are and have
been a constant advocate for support of the commercial sector because I
firmly believe that it offers the best hope for future employment
opportunities for young scientists (*good* opportunities too). I have
repeatedly asked NSF to lift their ban on commercial employment
postings but have not been successful to date. I intend to continue
pushing for this.
Now, since I personally disagree with some of the policies on
subject limitations and job postings, I could, of course, just
ignore the rules. There seems to me to be a tendency among the
educated to think that rules are only to keep the stupid in line; that
we all know better; that we can understand the purpose behind the policy,
and thus we can rationalize not following the policy because, if we
violate it, no one will be the worse off.
This is not how I operate. I have never been concerned about taking
unpopular positions here because I believe in playing by the rules and
I think that, fundamentally, most people will agree on this point. If
you don't like the rules, you try to change them, not violate them.
We are all involved in competitive activities, especially in the
funding process, and I have never shirked from competition, but
winning by breaking the rules is a hollow victory. Nonetheless, the
old adage "nice guys finish last" is witness to the fact that many are
not encumbered by such scruples, and our field is no stranger to this
kind of activity.
So, Roy (and others), you are free to say whatever you want in spite
of past requests from NIH to me to discourage the use of the
newsgroups for political lobbying. I also obviously can not stop
people from posting commercial job postings despite NSF's wishes.
Please just be aware that by doing so here, instead of in other USENET
forums specifically designed for such activities, you run the
potential of having **my hide and that of the people that work with
me** pay for *your* right to sound off here instead of in more
appropriate forums. You *are* right; no government official will come
after *YOU*. But, if you have any regards for the help that we have
provided to you and the rest of the community in the past, I'd like
your assistance in not putting my staff and I at risk.
Sincerely,
Dave Kristofferson
GenBank Manager
kristoff at genbank.bio.net
