Hi Jesse,
There are some cases where confidentiality is
necessary. We routinely
ask external experts for their evaluation of the test project content
before project approval, as Yaroslav mentioned early in this
discussion. These external persons are sometimes in situations where
speaking negatively about the content may be seen as an attack on
nationalist or culturalist interests, and put them at risk of
professional or personal reprisal. These persons are offered
confidentiality to protect them and to ensure we get their honest
opinion.
This was not Gerard's argument about why members of the committee do not
disclose their discussions. I personally totally understand that need but I
also think this is a case-by-case thing. Disclosing these interactions or
not based on the discretion of the committee is perfectly fine by me.
However, most content can be safely made public and is published to
the public archives if the email authors agree. These have not been
updated recently, but only because I have not had time to do so; they
should be updated in the coming months, now that someone has joined
with public archival as one of their goals.
This is a repeat of your position earlier. It does not address my concern. I
personally was not able to follow the discussion threads with all the
censored messages from committee members, not outside sources.
--
Best Regards,
Muhammad Yahia