From b714ffbb0db14f563445e491f0cb62778a6153ba Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Richard Fontana Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2015 20:52:32 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] add BACKGROUND.md --- BACKGROUND.md | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+) create mode 100644 BACKGROUND.md diff --git a/BACKGROUND.md b/BACKGROUND.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..96a701c --- /dev/null +++ b/BACKGROUND.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +Background +========== + +The impetus to create the Harvey Birdman Rule stemmed from three formative +experiences: the quasi-public phase of the GPLv3 drafting process +(January 2006--June 2007); the Project Harmony deliberations +(ca. 2010-2011); and the ongoing activities of the European Legal +Network run by Free Software Foundation Europe (ca 2007--present). + +HBR is a critique of the Chatham House Rule, which governed Project +Harmony for most of its life and has officially governed the +activities of ELN since 2008, if not inception. + +The name "Harvey Birdman Rule" was coined by Richard Fontana in an IRC +channel conversation with Bradley Kuhn and others in (IIRC) 2012. The +name is a reference to *Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law*. At least two +post-hoc explanations for the naming have been given, but the real +reason is a quasi-inside joke between Fontana and Kuhn, which Kuhn has +probably forgotten and which wasn't really all that funny to begin +with. +