The original agenda behind the "invention" of the PubwanConcept was that of finding an antidode to what the Internet had become. The MO suggested in service to this agenda was essentially a process of deconstructing (in concept) what the Internet had become and reconstructing (hopefully in an "engineering" sense) what the Internet had been.
So I (LorraineLee) "invented" PubWan. The year was 2000, and the month was September. The history of the Internet, and of humynity generally, was in that nebulous state between starting to "get it" about how much of a paranoid hoax the WhyTwoKay problem was, and of course the world had no idea how huge a threat to the CauseOfTransparency lay about a calendar year or so ahead.
In the spirit of taking an inventive approach to a deconstructive task, I posted the idea to one of those (at that time, especially) ubiquitous.