< Back to index
Pamela Jones, commonly known as PJ, is the creator and editor of Groklaw, an award-winning website that covers legal news of interest to the FOSS community. Jones is a journalist, who previously trained and worked as a paralegal.
Her articles have appeared in Linux Journal, LWN, Linux World, Linux Today, and LinuxWorld.com. She also writes a monthly column for the UK print publication LinuxUser. She is one of the authors of the O'Reilly book, "Open Sources 2.0 : The Continuing Evolution"
Grok Projects
Groklaw
Her stated purpose for starting Groklaw can be found in the first interview she ever granted, for Linux Online, where she said this:
"I started my blog just before the SCO case was filed. Originally, my purpose was just trying to learn how to blog, because an attorney and I were discussing the possibility of me doing some telecommuting work for him, including work on his blog. I had no knowledge of blogging, so I quickly got Radio, because he used it, and I put up one article to practice, which I never thought anyone in the world would ever see (ironically, about the Grokster decision and how I admired David Boies' Napster legal documents). I was just writing to the air."
"My thought then was to try to explain legal news stories as they came along. I was forever reading Slashdot comments about legal news and most of the comments would be way off, and I realized that there is a hunger for someone to explain what it all means, what the process is, how things play out, to people who aren't in the legal field."
Groklaw's Mission Statement says it is meant to be several things:
"It's an experiment, something not quite like anything that has been done before. It's primarily a working site, not a discussion forum. First, it's a journalistic enterprise, with interviews, research, and reporting of legal events important to the FOSS community.... Second, we are applying open-source principles to research to the extent that they apply.... Third, it's an antiFUD site."
Groklaw has covered the various lawsuits involving the SCO Group in detail but also covers general legal news of interest to the Free Software and Open Source community. The site has won numerous awards.(See Groklaw for a list.)
Grokline
Jones also launched Grokline, a Unix ownership timeline project, in February of 2004. The project was successful in finding, getting permission to publish, and publishing the BSDi settlement agreement, which had been sealed by the parties and which was important in dispersing a cloud of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) the SCO group had placed over the settlement terms.
Grokdoc
Grokdoc's goal is to create a useful manual on basic tasks that new users will find simple and clear and easy to follow, using what they learn from they study.
PJ
Jones reveals very little personal information, as she considers it private and has expressed from the beginning a strong preference for avoiding fame. Here are the reasons she gave in the early days for using just her initials:
"I originally wanted to stay anonymous, in a sense, by just saying PJ. Eventually media attention and other factors made it impossible to remain just PJ but I would have if I could have. I have no desire to be famous, for one thing. And I have been creatively influenced by Scott McCloud's work. He points out in Understanding Comics (p. 45-51) in a section on iconic representation that people respond most strongly to a drawing of a character that simplifies to the point that anyone can identify with the character. I guess I was hoping for that effect. In other words, I was hoping people could assume whatever they wanted and just focus on what I said, rather than on who was saying it. For that reason, I chose PJ, because it could be anyone, either sex, any nationality, anyone and no one in particular. I wanted participation by anyone interested in the SCO story. No politics. Nothing extraneous. Just an effort to locate and provide evidence that could be useful. I knew the community could answer SCO, if they just knew what was needed. And they have."
Critics
The primary critic of Groklaw and Jones has been the SCO Group. Various journalists with a history of supporting the SCO Group and Microsoft have also been critical, as have some claiming to be members of the FOSS community. One issue raised was the fact that Jones worked for Open Source Risk Management on a research project from February of 2004 until November of 2004. It was falsely stated by some that Jones was involved in the OSRM patent research and their indemnification work, and that false accusation was used as a vehicle to criticize her and Groklaw.
Others falsely accused her of being associated with IBM. In the SCO litigation, eventually SCO asked IBM directly in discovery for all communications, documents, etc. between IBM and Pamela Jones, and IBM told them unequivocably that there is no association. Jones has also denied any association, she's stated that she views all such criticism as FUD, designed to undermine her credibility. The criticism coincided with the time period when SCO first announced it would set up an antiGroklaw website, and then failed to launch the site. An upsurge in trolls and criticism on other venues followed thereafter, which Jones has said are, in her opinion, a coordinated effort to discredit Groklaw.
One incident that was particularly illustrative was an article written by Maureen O'Gara, purporting to "out" Jones. The article, however, inspired so much criticism of O'Gara that the publisher, Sys-con, issued a public apology to Jones and dropped Ms. O'Gara from its list of authors. Distaste for what they stated was a violation of journalistic ethics caused the entire editorial staff of LinuxWorld, which at the time was also a Sys-Con publication, to resign in protest. O'Gara received some support later from Daniel Lyons of Forbes Magazine [http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/1114/128sidebara_print.html ], in an article critical of bloggers which was widely condemned [http://dee-ann.blog-city.com/press_release_forbes_attack_of_the_blogs_article_misleads_re.htm]. James Turner, senior contributing editor for Linux Today and product review editor for Linux Journal and one of the editors who resigned, has given his opinion on the Forbes article [http://turner.blog-city.com/dan_lyons_forbes_version_of_mauren_ogara.htm]. An open letter of protest asserting many factual errors in the Lyons article was also sent to Forbes by the Internet Press Guild [http://freerangelibrarian.com/archives/111505/ipg_to_forbes_magazi.php], but Forbes never acknowledged the letter or made any corrections.
Publications
* Articles in Linux Journal, Linux World, Linux Today, LWN.
* Monthly column in LinuxUser, a UK print publication.
* Co-author of "Open Sources 2.0 : The Continuing Evolution" (ISBN 0-596-00802-3).
This entry uses material from from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Disclaimer.