Email to Sean Black I did not want this text to be publicly known since I still have to contact the professors but in the current situation I see no choice but to put the draft text here PM 1 I earlier emailed this draft to Rob Speer and Joe Hall for comment and just sent it out to Sean Black PM 2 I noticed that I am also blocked from the RfC page I have not had much time to investigate what the intention of that page is since I am writing my email to the professors so I don t know whether that page or being blocked from it is important PM 3 It is not true that I only editted pages on myself PM 4 Who hold that contacting a professor would be the same as contacting an employer neglect my earlier comment that I approach the issue from the angle of the integrity of science The proper reaction is not to neglect it but give the argument why this angle would be improper PM 5 On the RfC Joe Hall suggests that my objective would be to punish him or so No I only suggest that the professor and he discuss the situation from the angle of the integrity of science Earlier I wrote that this would be very beneficial for him PM 6 Joe mentioned that Hal Varian no longer is the dean at SIMS Thus the draft needs at least one change PM 7 I told everyone that I wanted a time out Why don t you respect that wish Didn t I read somewhere that a truce was also an option Dear Mr Black I saw that while I was composing my letter to the professors at MIT and SIMS further action on wikipedia about me There is an RfC which I am not familiar with and now you seem to have been blocking me whatever that is Below you find the draft text of my letter to the professors If you think that this is threatening and not befitting a scientific community please reply A few hours ago I already sent this draft text to Rob Speer and Joe Hall With an introductory text that I no longer have since wiki mail has no cc But they might forward the email sent to them I would appreciate it if you could explain the problem and what I can expect Please see also my recent edit of Arrow s impossibility theorenm My regards Thomas Colignatus DRAFT To the president of MIT Professor Susan Hockfield hockfield mit edu To the dean of SIMS University of California at Berkeley Professor Hal Varian hal sims berkeley edu March 11 2006 Dear professors Hockfield and Varian Dear Hal I have a problem on the integrity of science with two of your students Rob Speer at MIT who started the problem and Joseph Lorenzo Hall at SIMS who is interfering in an unhelpful way The problem is summarized in the appendix Obviously the integrity of science is a difficult subject even for academics so there must be a great deal of tolerance with students With students they certainly can not be held accountable as scientists can and they are only learning the trade Yet students e g know that one can not cheat a test and that one must study a topic before one gives conclusions on it When issues of integrity arise it can be very educational for them to have the issue discussed In this case these two students would learn a lot about scientific conduct and scientific integrity In the present case the issue is on the behaviour of these students on the internet in particular wikipedia It appears that communication with these students is greatly hindered by that environment which does not allow the quality of deliberation provided by a personal chat with a person that they respect My reason to contact you is to ask you to find a teacher or counselor at your school to have that chat It is to be considered whether the activity of those students within wikipedia is related to their life as students at your schools My impression is that this relation exists Firstly they present themselves on their wikipedia pages as students of MIT and SIMS thus partly referring to those institutions and their education there implying their relation to you Secondly they are active in editing work where they refer to learned books and where they use difficult words Their behaviour thus can not be strictly separated from their education and prospective position as scientists This is most clearly so with Joseph Lorenzo Hall who is already a Ph D student who thus must write scientific papers for the journals For Rob Speer who started the problem it can be observed that his education on computing science is relevant for the topic where the problem arose In the end it is with