[TOS] About the POSSE cohort list privacy settings

[Mel Chua]

A heads-up, in the name of being transparent about privacy:

We've got a mailing list for the members of the 2011 POSSE cohort. The 
list membership is restricted for staff/participants in that particular 
POSSE (as it has been for all POSSE lists in the past), and after some 
discussion we've decided to make the list archives private as well. This 
is so that the members of the cohort have a virtual space where they can 
be more frank about what they're encountering during the school year; in 
case a tough situation comes up with a class, we can discuss it  without 
worry that a student or administrator might run across the conversation 
in a public archive, that we're violating student confidentiality or 
privacy laws, etc.

The list description, as set on 
http://lists.teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/posse-cohort-2011:

"A private discussion list for participants in the 2011 POSSE program 
cohort, a yearlong program for professors teaching their students the 
open source way. See http://communityleadershipteam.org/posse for more 
details on the program. This list is private to allow for confidential 
discussions about teaching situations, course information, etc - when 
possible, public discussions will occur on the main TOS list instead."

A few notes:

* We pledge to keep public discussion public -- for the most part, the 
POSSE cohort will also be talking on the TOS list! We will keep an eye 
out on the private list for discussions that should be public, and will 
work with the original sender to migrate them to the main TOS list when 
possible.

* I don't expect the list traffic to be very high in general -- there'll 
be a peak around this summer's workshop activities, probably a peak at 
the start and end of each semester... if folks ask, I'd be happy to 
provide stats on how many messages have actually been sent.

* The list will likely be active for approximately 15 months (the 
duration of a POSSE cohort -- a school year and the 2 summers around it, 
so it's not a private discussion of infinite length.

Thoughts and comments welcome; I wanted to make sure that this decision 
and the reasoning behind it were out as a matter of public record.

--Mel