[alma_na] From Paul Vanden Bout - re: ALMA Memo Series

[Janet Bauer]

Regarding the ALMA Memo Series,

My recent message announcing a review process for the ALMA Memo Series 
was apparently too cryptic.  It has raised concerns that the free and 
open exchange of information will be damaged.  Let me provide more 
information on what is planned.

First, the policy of having some review, however little, is a policy of 
the ALMA Board.  The Board did not want everyone on the planet to have 
the right to post memos to the Series, independent of their expertise or 
association with the Project or astronomy.  The Board is not opposed to 
free and open exchange of information, only to the possibility of 
crackpots appearing in the Series because no one was looking.  Further, 
in using the Series as a means of encouraging free and open exchange of 
ideas, the Board recognized that politically sensitive memos would 
appear, as they should.  However, the Board did not feel such memos 
should appear in the Series until the Project had the time to prepare a 
response, should a response be necessary.

So the JAO has asked Stacy Oliver to check with the Project Manager or 
Project Scientist before posting a memo to the Series.  Unless we 
receive one entitled "ALMA Will Fail Because Einstein is Wrong" from an 
author in a mental institution, or something like that, the memo will be 
posted, immediately, in all cases except those where the Project would 
like a day or two to prepare an answer should the memo attract the 
attention of Congress, the NSF, the ESO Council, etc.  But even then, 
the memo will be posted.  No memo in the Series today would have been 
rejected by this "review".


Paul Vanden Bout