Jerry, in the now closed and protected forum of AOK, decided that my earlier blog entitled him to publish private correspondence, which is fair enough. However (and this is classic) he chose to moderate the exchange by selective publication! For the sake of completeness I reproduce it below, along with his explanation of my banning to AOK; sent to me by several members of the AOK.

Now I did think about just letting this go. However I think Jerry's actions illustrate one of the issues of listservs v blogs and also demonstrate both the danger, and the impracticability of censorship. So its worth using this case to illustrate some of those points by getting it some PR.

Some comments and highlights from the full exchange:

1. It's interesting that Jerry, although he claims to be a specialist journalist in knowledge management, is unaware of what is happening with social computing. You can't close down a conversation or silence someone any more. Patrick Lamb makes this point with his customary eloquence in a blog on AOK and his withdrawal.
2. Jerry says that he is defending the freedom of the group from anarchy, which he defines as challenging his curtailment of the freedom of another member of the group
3. One phrase stands our from Jerry's exchange with me, he says On behalf of the membership as a whole I have taken responsibility for managing my own group. Moderation of individuals will happen when I believe it is in the best interest of AOK as a whole. Notice the use if I and my, no question of the group having any rights. Jerry really does think he knows best and is coupling paternalism with censorship.

Now I promise to get back to some more serious matters later. Paula in her reply to my earlier posting stimulated me to think about how Existentialism with its emphasis on choices and the consequences of choices has much to teach us in social computing. If I get a series of tasks complete today expect that later on, or early tomorrow. For the moment Jerry has made a choice, to censor his discussion group.

This is what Jerry published (with formatting from me but no censorship)

June 25, 2007 12:01:30 AM EDT
Hi Everyone.
As you know Dave Snowden has aired our linen on his website which releases me to share with you some back channel correspondence between the two of us which will show the lead-up to his action. You can make up your own mind, but in my mind we--and I mean the "we" of AOK--cannot be ruled by threat and intimidation. And we cannot be drawn down to a level that does not become us.AOK will continue to be a safe community where freedom rules . . .
except where anarchists threaten. The end.

ORIGINAL Messages:
On June 22, 2007 10:37:05 PM EDT Snowden wrote:
Excerpt: Post to Jack Ring
If Jerry is now back into selective moderation then you will be able to avoid my style of debate hereafter as it will not be present

On 22 Jun 2007, at 01:25, Jerry Ash wrote:
Dave. If I have put anyone on "moderated" you'll find it out from that person or deduce it in some other way. I consider that information private -- a matter between me and the person. The list otherwise continues unmoderated. I can say this. I have not made decisions today based on this one incident but on patterns, both recent and historic. On behalf of the membership as a whole I have taken responsibility for managing my own group. Moderation of individuals will happen when I believe it is in the best interest of AOK as a whole.
If that makes AOK untenable to you, then I am very very sad. And, Dave, I have deeply appreciated your friendship and will continue to carry my best thoughts for you. Perhaps we can continue to be friends outside of AOK.
Jerry

On June 22, 2007 10:30:06 PM EDT, Dave Snowden wrote:
You are wrong Jerry. Valdis did nothing to justify you taking that action.
I suggest you think about it for a day or so - if that is your decision then I will withdraw and state my reasons both in the group (you may wish to censor them) and on the blog. I will suggest to others that they do the same. I am afraid I am no longer prepared to tolerate censorship and paternalism and have resolved to take an active stance against it.
I would regret this, I have actively promoted AOK since you took moderation away, and been prepared to tolerate republication of material by ARK at what I consider an excessive price.
Dave Snowden

On June 22, 2007 11:16:25 PM EDT Jerry Ash wrote:
Dave.
I have removed you from the list.
Jerry

On June 23, 2007 5:05:57 AM EDT Dave Snowden wrote:
As I recall I didn't ask you to do that .....
Dave Snowden

On June 23, 2007 8:57:23 AM EDT Jerry Ash wrote:
Dave.
Yes, but I'm no fool. When you threaten to do as much harm as you can to AOK it makes no sense to let you use my list to do it.

And then we have the missing response, not published by Jerry:

On 23 June 2007 14:14:56 BDT Dave Snowden wrote
You do over react Jerry, you did to Valdis, you are now to me. You also seem to have a tendency to misread (I reference many past incidents) material in a somewhat naive way and to over react without thinking. I suspect your original post to Valdis (which was fairly incoherent) was sent quickly and possibly late at night.
I fully intend to protest (and fairly publicly) the way in which you are doing harm to AOK by a paternalistic attempt at control - on the blog and probably at the ARK KM event in a couple of weeks time. Your somewhat arbitrary reaction has probably intensified that protest. Don't worry too much, the tenor is going to be one of regret that you were unable to handle debate and seem to want to hasten the demise of KM by allowing platitudes to go uncriticised.
AOK was a great idea and concept. It had potential for further growth and was starting to open up a bit. Your attack on Validis was a retrograde step and as a long term member of the community I think I am entitled to defend someone when they are unreasonably attacked. Especially as I have been actively promoting it since you took off the moderation and providing you with praise for doing so. I guess I am feeling a little betrayed in that. I am also entitled to discuss within the group your arbitrary & arrogant assertion of authority without you cutting our any contradictory views to your own.
Now I can see that you might identify AOK with your self, and more specifically be over sensitive of couple of mistakes in the moderators you have brought on - I think you may have been a little seduced in the interviews you conducted with them and some journalistic objectivity and criticism would have helped.
You have chosen to avoid that debate within AOK which is a pity. I am afraid I think it makes you a fool

As you can see my overall tone (I think) is one of regret at the loss of AOK to paternalism. I see from Jerry that in September he has lined up a team of Etienne Wenger, John Smith and Nancy White. I am working with Etienne at KM Australia in July and have had several exchanges with Nancy, some in harmony some in disagreement. and John's blog is in my RSS feed. When they do engage with AOK I will miss the discussion. They on the other hand will be ensured of some protection from dangerous anarchy. Knowing them I doubt if they would have needed Jerry's protection in that respect.