Hi all, As many of you already know, OGSA-WG was approached by a researcher in the department of sociology at the University of Chicago. He asked us to participate in an ethnographic study of the standards building process. His profile and the latest proposal is on the wiki page: https://forge.gridforum.org/sf/go/wiki1717 I spoke with him in detail to understand his intent and expected output and believe it is in our best interest to allow him to proceed with his study. He will provide anonymous information about voluntary based grass root culture that may help us become more productive and increase participant satisfaction in the future. The OGF Board and GFSG has already given permission and I want to ask for all OGSA-WG members' permission to allow this study to occur. It is almost one year study he will join our F2F meetings and telephone conferences. I believe it is very non-obtrusive in nature. If at any time we would like to stop his observation, we just tell him. He will stop and continue at a later date, or stop altogether. Although there is no objection against his study at the last Thursday call, based on our common practice, I will ask on the mailing list if any of you have any concerns, please let me know by email by the next Friday, March 9th. Hearing none, I will give him the green light to proceed. Best Regard, -- Hiro Kishimoto