Just to make sure we're under the right assumptions: NDAs about launch schedules aren't really going to get us in trouble about ITAR, you can give your international team a ready-by date and leave it at that. Information about ground support equipment potentially under ITAR, and sometimes that will have to be compartmentalised. You will notice, however, that SpaceX makes their user guide public . This may indeed be because of ITAR. And these days most of what we launch comes out of a p-pod, which is a public standard and should not be subject to NDA.
It would really help to know what the partnerships are. We sort of wave our hands about them without discussing what they are, whether they are still useful, and what alternatives we might have to them. For example, at this late date it might be better to replace a partnership with AHA with an entirely open gate-array design which would not require NDAs. We have Open Cores and many similar open projects to partner with in that case.
And may I suggest that monthly board meetings might be a good way for the directors to start working together?
Thanks
Bruce
On Thu, Jul 16, 2020, 2:52 PM Burns Fisher via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Hi,
I am Burns Fisher, WB1FJ. I'm a retired software engineer who is currently writing software as a volunteer for AMSAT. In my career, I have written software that is not open source, as well as that which is--I don't have an ax to grind in that fight. I am not going to endorse or recommend against any candidates in this mail, but I do want to bring to light a few items that I don't believe have been discussed and to make a suggestion.
One thing that I have not heard in the discussion is that "not fully open-source" is different from "proprietary". I am NOT and never have been an AMSAT director nor a policy decision maker in any form, but in my 10 years writing software for AMSAT satellites, I have had to deal with ITAR. I have been told to talk about things with non-US persons only after they are published, for example. However, I have NEVER seen or been told that it was the intent of anyone in AMSAT to keep any information private forever. We are encouraged to publish work that we are doing in the AMSAT Journal and to talk and write about it for the Symposium (and I have done so). In addition, if you look in the back of your AMSAT Symposium Proceedings for the past 8 or more years, you will find what we called "The ITAR Dump". That is publishing specs and most everything that we could about the satellites we were working on to be openly available in order to take it out from under ITAR.
Another point worth making, and that I have personally seen, is that sometimes secrets are necessary. For example: We might be asked by a university partner not to talk about some part of the experiment they want to fly with us, so we do not talk; otherwise we could not fly the experiment (and lose the launch opportunity this experiment afforded us). We are told by our launch provider not to talk about dates and other things regarding the launch, so we don't (or we don't get the launch--or perhaps we find it harder to get the next one). Some contacts that we make may be willing to do really good things for AMSAT, but not if we talk about it before they are ready for us to do so.
No one I know (and people I know include all the directors, the officers, and all but one of the candidates) would be unhappy to reduce secretiveness and especially to avoid ITAR, but nearly every choice we make is a tradeoff that requires discussion.
Perhaps AMSAT is working under internal procedures relating to ITAR that are outdated, especially given the law change and the many resulting rule changes in the past 5 years. If there is a path to fewer onerous restrictions, that would be great. Working together might lead us to that path.
What we CAN NOT do is to ignore our previously-undertaken obligations. NDAs are still in force. Some previous work may still fall under ITAR/EAR. ITAR penalties are sufficiently draconian that we must step carefully. Slow and careful is frustrating. However, no matter who gets elected, infighing only slows things down.
I beg the newer directors to back off a bit. I beg the longer term directors to look for a way to work with the newer ones. And above all, I beg ALL of you to calm down, look within yourselves for mistakes you have made in dealing with each other (surely no one is perfect), take ownership for your mistakes, apologize for what you need to and vow TO YOURSELF AND EACH OTHER that you will do better.
That is a difficult ask, I understand. Trust has been badly battered. Perhaps you need a professional mediator (and, while no expert myself, I know who to ask for recommendations if you need them). What I *know* is that fighting will not help. Working together does not mean agreeing on everything. It only means finding SOME things you agree on (satellites in HEO?) and agreeing to listen to each other. Maybe calling each other by your first names is a start?
I look forward to more light and less heat.
Thanks for reading...
73,
Burns WB1FJ _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb