So let me get this straight: A prominent blogger takes confidential information sent to gov. body of a private professional organization 1/5
— Christopher Zorn (@prisonrodeo) February 16, 2014
...
And the blogger in question... did a *good* thing? 5/5Of course, the timing was driven not by when I was in the air but by the Kristof op-ed which drove a frenzy of debate about the role of academics in engaging the public. Kristof cited the initial coverage of the ISA mess, not really showing what happened next.
— Christopher Zorn (@prisonrodeo) February 16, 2014
My first reaction to the NYT op-ed was being a little queasy. I don't like it that our intra-ISA spat got played like this. But nausea and guilt are natural reactions even when I do not consider myself the Snowden of the ISA. Given that the document was online in an open site and given that I asked the exec director of the ISA whether the document was confidential (um, did Manning or Snowden ask the powers that be in the US govt for permission?), I don't think I leaked anything.
Still, my blog was the one that got things rolling, so I feel some responsibility for publicizing the lousy proposal. I had not expected this thing to go as viral (in our terms, we are not getting quite the same number of hits to our blogs as ... grumpy cat). And I could have turned down the press opportunities that came quickly that week even as the ISA president was backing down. But, damnit, I believe in this public engagement thing, so if folks are going to cover what we are doing and they ask me for my opinion, I am going to give it.
As I have said, a key irony here is that an attempt to prevent the ISA from being embarrassed has created far more embarrassment for the organization than if they had not acted at all. I feel bad about that, I truly do. But I am not an expert in organizing social movements, so all I understood once I read the proposal was that I wanted to rally support to win a vote at the Governing Council in March. Sure, I could have just waited to see things play out, as Zorn suggests, but I do know from veto player theory (which we apply just a smidge in our book!) that it is generally easier to stop something than to have it reversed. I had no idea how much support existed in Ex-Com for this proposal (not as much as I thought), so I thought I would need to get more than a majority of the votes of the remaining Governing Council members to overcome all of the votes coming from Ex-Com members.
Am I sorry that this thing spun out in public so much? Yes. I never anticipated getting 6k plus hits at the Spew (I do not have ads, so my hit count only adds to my ego) for the post. Am I sorry that I acted? That my post helped to reveal how far we have come and how much support I had across the community? No. It was a teaching moment, as they say in any crisis. I learned a lot. The ISA membership learned a lot. And isn't that we are in this business for?
Anyhow, I know that I have some responsibility in all of this, and I will not play the Rambo card much "they drew first blood, not me." Oops, maybe just a bit. I am sure this will be an on-going topic, and I don't mind if folks question me or blame me a bit. Just be reasonable about whether I could have foreseen the reactions of the past couple of weeks.
