-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Ray Saintonge stated for the record:
Sean Barrett wrote:
I maintain that mere difficulty of access should not be a criterion in evaluating sources. If a source /can/ be obtained by any editor, be it by Google, by using the public library, by snail-mail, or by traveling by camel to Samarkand, then it is a valid source, IMAO. In contrast, many of us have access to material that cannot be verified by those outside our professions. There is, for example, quite a lot of perfectly innocuous, unclassified, public domain data that only people with .mil e-mail addresses would be able to verify.
By making restricting access in this way the material if effectively classified. It is clearly a low level classification, but classified nevertheless. The key question should be, "Is the material available to anyone?" Can a stranger off the street have anonymous access somewhere? Is a website valid if it is the only source of the material but requires membership for passive access to the material.
Ec
Exactly. J.Random Wikeditor could, if he really wanted to, verify for himself whether or not Titian's /Danae/ is in fact hanging in the Hermitage. He cannot personally verify the number of laptops in use by VFA-122, /even though that number is not restricted in any way/ -- except by being published only (as far as I know) on a military network.
- -- Sean Barrett | All I ask is the chance to prove sean@epoptic.org | that money can't make me happy.