All times in these blog "revision histories" are stated in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time/ Temps Universel Coordoné, a precisification of the old GMT, or "Greenwich Mean Time"), in the ISO-prescribed YYYYMMDDThhmmZ timestamping format. UTC leads Toronto summer civil time by 4 hours and leads Toronto winter time by 5 hours (and lags Stockholm-Helsinki-Tallinn-summer civil time by 3 hours).
- 20180822T192200Z/version 1.2.0: Kmo did an update, in essence reporting a favourable incoming e-mail from an officer of the Richmond Hill Public Library. - Kmo reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks over the coming 240 hours, as here-undocumented versions 1.2.1, 1.2.2, ... .
- 20180822T000700Z (and also earlier)/version 1.1.0: Kmo made some essentially nonsubstantive tweaks, and additionally on the side of substance added references to RASC. - He reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks over the coming 240 hours, as here-undocumented versions 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ... .
- 20180820T214500Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version.
1. Values Guiding the DDO Park Archivists
- Through their work on the David Dunlap Observatory and Park (DDO&P) heritage-conservation case, the DDO Park Archivists (the "Archivists") seek to strengthen the causes of cultural-heritage conservation and natural-heritage conservation in Ontario. They see this as their local contribution to a wider project - more necessary than ever, they feel, in these days of social-media manipulation and legislative corruption - namely, the enhancing of civic trust. The wider project is addressed in hundreds of ways by thousands of community volunteers around the world even outside the Archivists' own chosen field, heritage conservation. The Archivists thus note that civic trust is enhanced by high-profile environmentalist organizations, such as the International Tree Foundation, or again by Greenpeace, and (looking still further afield) by such non-profit private-sector organizations as l'Arche, Médecins sans Frontières, the Free Software Foundation, and Amnesty International. The Archivists note that although their own scope is municipal, their work, if done well, is nevertheless liable to set a beneficial example for civic-spirited individuals and civic-spirited groupings outside Richmond Hill, even outside Canada.
- The DDO Park Archivists see their work as part of the truth-and-reconciliation outreach sketched by one of their number, Dr Toomas Karmo (in the 1935-through-2008 staff-documentation formalism used internall at DDO, "Kmo"), in his http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com posting of 2018-06-10, headed "The 'DDO&P Conflict', 2007-09-10 to 2018-06-09" (available at http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/06/)). Mindful both that truth is foundational to reconciliation and that concealment is an adversary of truth, the Archivists undertake to put into their archiving and public cataloguing queue all the DDO&P Conservation-case materials available to them, without any attempt at filtering and censorship, applying just the following proviso: If it seems to the Archivists that the ethics of privacy protection require some material to be suppressed, then they will flag their act of suppression in their publicly viewable archive cataloguing, stating reasons, and describing their suppressed material in as much detail as the ethics of privacy protection may allow. The Archivists do not envisage that censorship will in fact be needed. They do, however, further undertake to consult with the appropriate government authority or authorities (the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, ... ) in the (remotely conceivable) contingency of a censorship question arising. The Archivists' core principle is the same as the core principle of the Free Software Foundation: We eschew secrets; our work is an open book, a non-governmental contribution to the public record.
2. Overview of the DDO Park Archivists Projects
- The main effort of the Archivists, at least in the short term (2018, 2019, 2020) is the cataloguing and curating of half a dozen crates of papers from DDO&P conservation activist Toomas Karmo (resident in Richmond Hill from 2006 November through 2018 October, but from 2018 November onward to be considered a resident in the dark-sky compound of Tartu Observatory (in the Tõravere hamlet, Nõo Commune, Tartu County, Estonia)).
- As time may allow, the Archivists will make some efforts at curating also Toomas Karmo's digital archives (most notably, e-mail inboxes and e-mail outboxes) from the DDO&P conservation case.
- The Archivists will consider working with other pertinent actors in the DDO&P conservation case, including the Richmond Hill Naturalists, the DDO Defenders, and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), to curate their papers and digital archives also, in the event that mutual agreements can be reached with them.
- The Archivists invite all other public and private entities, including Corsica Developments Inc. and its partners (as creators of a 32-hectare subdivision, comprising a little under 600 units of housing, from the legacy 77 DDO&P greenspace hectares: 77 hectares were in play originally; 32 hectares were lost, 45 hectares are saved), and again the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (in some past years a party with contractual obligations to Corsica) to donate papers and digital materials to their work.
3. Relation of the DDO Park Archivists to Municipal and Provincial Authorities
The Archivists are happy to accept any support which may in future be offered them at the municipal and provincial levels.
They note that their initial efforts at municipal outreach are now showing some degree of progress.
(A) In the 2018 summer, the Local History Room at the Richmond Hill Public Library Main Branch found itself unable, the low-key courtesy of Dr Karmo's approach notwithstanding, to allow Archivists' cataloguing work to be done at its own worktables, and additionally (the courtesy of Dr Karmo's approach notwithstanding) in 2018 August reserved its decision on whether to accept any eventual - to be sure, as Dr Karmo indicated to the Room, duly processed, duly catalogued - materials from the Archivists. But (B) on 2018-08-22, an appropriate authority at the Richmond Hill Public Library queried Dr Karmo by e-mail, in a way that signalled an interest in archiving.
(A) In the 2018 summer, the Local History Room at the Richmond Hill Public Library Main Branch found itself unable, the low-key courtesy of Dr Karmo's approach notwithstanding, to allow Archivists' cataloguing work to be done at its own worktables, and additionally (the courtesy of Dr Karmo's approach notwithstanding) in 2018 August reserved its decision on whether to accept any eventual - to be sure, as Dr Karmo indicated to the Room, duly processed, duly catalogued - materials from the Archivists. But (B) on 2018-08-22, an appropriate authority at the Richmond Hill Public Library queried Dr Karmo by e-mail, in a way that signalled an interest in archiving.
The Archivists further note (and Dr Karmo indicated this to the Library, in replying to the 2018-08-22 query) that in their own private judgement, the public interest would be best served by a two-pronged archiving solution, in which all their materials become lodged with the Archives of Ontario (as a distinctively secure and distinctively well-equipped Ontario repository), and in which copies of some or all of their materials become lodged with the (duly equipped, and yet less formidably equipped) Local History Room of the Richmond Hill Public Library Main Branch.
4. Relation of the DDO Park Archivists to Other Non-Governmental Community Organizations
The Archivists are not formally connected with either of the two principally relevant non-governmental community organizations in the 2007-through-2018 conservation casework, namely the Richmond Hill Naturalists and the DDO Defenders. They also are not formally connected with RASC, or with any branch of government, or with any commercial organization. A caveat: one or more of the Archivists either is now or has in the past been a member of one or more of the following: the Richmond Hill Naturalists; the DDO Defenders; the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
The Archivists find themselves in full philosophical agreement with the Naturalists, concurring with them that the destruction by commercial parties of 32 hectares out of the 77-hectare legacy DDO&P greenspace injures Ontario's public interest.
The Archivists invite the DDO Defenders to agree formally, over coming years, with their own philosophical position, and in the happy event of a formal agreement-on-values to consider making the Archivists a branch or unit within their own organization, or in some other way to formalize a cooperation with them.
The Archivists would welcome as associates, engaged in the practical work of sorting and cataloguing, history-interested individuals from within the Naturalists, from within the Defenders, and from within RASC. They would not require such associate individuals to subscribe to the conservationist philosophical principles of the Archivists themselves.
The Archivists would welcome as associates, engaged in the practical work of sorting and cataloguing, history-interested individuals from within the Naturalists, from within the Defenders, and from within RASC. They would not require such associate individuals to subscribe to the conservationist philosophical principles of the Archivists themselves.
[This is the end of the current posting.]
