| Tempest in a Groklaw tea-cup |
Mar. 23, 2007
A recent InformationWeek story implied that Groklaw editor Pamela Jones is "receiving financial support from IBM." The evidence? Groklaw receives free hosting from the ibiblio project, which in turn is funded in part by grants from IBM and other tech companies with a strong interest in promoting Linux.
And the news here is what, exactly? For years, the Center for the Public Domain and University of North Carolina's ibiblio has supported open-source software and non-profit groups. For years, IBM has given the project some support. And, I might add, for years now, SCO has promoted the idea that Groklaw being hosted on ibiblio somehow meant that IBM was behind Groklaw.
Oh please. Pull the other one, it has bells on.
Please visit ibiblio, you will discover one of the great treasures of the Internet. For over a decade, counting its pre-ibiblio history when it was known first as metalab and then as sunsite, it has strived to be a universal library of free and public-domain software and information. If you have useful information to share -- on any subject from Burmese classical music to bee-keeping to video on Linux -- you can find a home on ibiblio. If like to think of ibiblio as being Wikipedia without the attitude problems.
Indeed, according to the InformationWeek author, ibiblio director Paul Jones told him that "if someone wanted to start a 'SCO is great' site I would host that, too." As it happens, I know Mr. Jones, and if it some individual or non-profit group wants to start such a site, I'm sure they'll find a home on ibiblio.
Here's the point of all this. Groklaw being hosted on ibiblio in no significant way, shape or form means that Groklaw is being financially supported by IBM. In turn, Pamela Jones is not being financially supported by IBM.
Let me twist this around for a moment, I pay about $250 a year to host my tiny Practical Technology site. I have little time to work on it so it gets almost no traffic, but it still makes just enough from Google Ads to pay for itself. Groklaw, I am sure, has monthly traffic in the millions and could prove quite a little money maker for Ms. Jones with Google Ads alone. It doesn't, and she doesn't.
Why? Because she is that rarest of human beings, a true idealist. She believes passionately in her intellectual property causes, and that is why she maintains Groklaw, not for money. Frankly, I don't think you could pay anyone enough to do the kind of work she's produced at this site.
And what does IBM say about this? I obtained a statment from the company. It reads:
"IBM has no connection to the editorial content posted on Groklaw."
"Groklaw's website, and hundreds of others, are hosted on a website at the University of North Carolina (UNC) , called ibliblio. This site is described by UNC as a public library. ibiblio runs on IBM System x servers which were funded through an IBM Shared University Award Grant awarded to UNC -- a grant that predates Groklaw ever being hosted on ibiblio. Anyone can host a site there and IBM does not sponsor, nor endorse, the content of those sites."
"IBM is proud to sponsor many universities around the world in various ways, including helping them host websites like the one at UNC."
I see, since I started writing this story, that Jones has also responded to this latest attempt to distract people from Groklaw's primary mission of providing accurate and complete information on SCO's anti-Linux lawsuits. Jones wrote, "IBM had nothing to do with Groklaw getting started, and we were already a force before we moved to ibiblio, and IBM had nothing to do with ibiblio accepting Groklaw. We were accepted because we qualified. Just because ibiblio hosts Groklaw doesn't mean I work for IBM. I don't."
Enough said.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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