Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin's Totally Unofficial Musings on the Business Side of the SCA
In a recent discussion of with webministers from around the Known World, someone asked a question, my answer to which I am re-posting here:
If an [officer] creates a google form […] is that form considered “an official website […]” and is the webministry accountable for making sure it adheres to the elements of a[n official] website required in the handbook?
This is a great question.
My take: No.
Continue reading “[Most] Web Apps are not “Official Websites””As part of last year’s group effort to rewrite the Webminister Handbook, I spent a bunch of time closely reading the privacy policy on the SCA.org website, as it applies to all SCA-controlled websites and online services.
One line in the policy caught my eye and prompted me to write Society leadership for more information; frustratingly, it required three emails over the course of six months to elicit a reply.
Continue reading “Tracking Privacy Policy Changes”An open letter to the corporate leadership of the SCA, lightly edited for clarity from the version I submitted in September 2022. — Mathghamhain
There is a long-standing issue within the Society around licensing for software developed by volunteers as well as related IT-related creations.
My direct experience with this is mostly in the context of the East Kingdom webministry, but in talking with folks from other kingdoms I’ve gotten the impression that this issue is widespread and dates back more than twenty years.
If you look at all the software written for various branches of the SCA — event calendars, order-of-precedence repositories, custom website themes, martial-authorization databases — I believe you will find that only a minority of it has clear copyright attributions or explicit licenses. Continue reading “Licensing of Software Developed for the SCA”
In talking with various officers from other kingdoms and within the Society’s leadership, it turns out that an undocumented provision allows for officers to gather release forms by email.
I’ve summarized what I’ve learned to date in the writeup below, which I will circulate for feedback — hopefully we can get any lingering issues ironed out, and then have this published somewhere official so that local officers can use this technique to streamline their work.
Continue reading “Processing Release Forms by Email”