Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1996 02:02:44 +0200 From: "Julian H. Stacey" <jhs@FreeBSD.org> To: p.richards@elsevier.co.uk Cc: current@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: tcl -- what's going on here. Message-ID: <199606200002.CAA04323@vector.jhs.no_domain> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 19 Jun 1996 12:53:42 BST." <199606191153.MAA07207@cadair.elsevier.co.uk>
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> From: Paul Richards <p.richards@elsevier.co.uk>
>
> Unfortunately, it's a fact of life in FreeBSD these days that certain
> people in core consider FreeBSD to be theirs and don't see any need to
> discuss issues with the project as a whole or even other core members
> because it just gets in their way.
It's time we had FreeBSD Annual Election Of Officials.
An increasingly autocratic attitude is noticeable, as is a tendency
to weigh proposals more by personalities & less by technicalities :-(
Periodic elections could restrain the autocractic tendency.
New, fresh, & rotated officials would invigorate the project.
No FreeBSD `officer', core, or commiter, was ever elected (or sacked) by
an electorate of current members. They are currently
`office-holders-for-life', there until they retire or drop dead.
FreeBSD is now a mature project, The un-elected oligarchy served us well
in the boot straping phase, but more people are now available,
& some change would prevent sclerosis.
The current oligarchy has no automatic right to a respect for their offices.
Mostly they've done a great job, & I wouldn't want to see a lot of change,
but only democratic selection can give them real legitimacy.
We deserve the current best occupant in each `official' position,
& that does not necessarily always match the dead hand of history,
whereby those first appointed get top positions for life !
[ Universities allow creative sabaticals,
Government cabinet ministers reshuffle jobs every 6 months or so.
British Telecom & the Halifax building society (biggest in UK) have board
members all of whom take turns to automatically retire by rotation
(inc. current Halifax chairman), & reseek office by election. ]
I Propose:
- Office-holders (President etc) be selected by competitive election,
every 6 or 12 months, by core or commiters or current.
(& on a question of semantics, if he/she is just elected by core he/she is
`FreeBSD-core Chairman' & Not `FreeBSD President', the later resounding
title is just mis-labelling unless elected by _many_ FreeBSD people.
- Core should be selected by competitive election, by commiters or current,
probably annually, either all at once, or on a "retire by rotation & seek
re-election" system, just like any proper board of directors.
- Commiters should be selected by some sort of fair mechanism:
enrollment _&_ removal should be confirmed by formal announced vote in
`core', not by arbitrary decision of a leading official.
PS I see FreeBSD Inc as unconnected to the above suggestions, I'm not
bothered what founders of that USA company call themselves, (so long as
no attempt to transfer ownership of FreeBSD code that way is made).
If we continue the drift towards autocracy, & allow a tendency to weigh
ideas & proposals by personalities rather than technicalities,
- We will drift on bickering toward chances of another repeat explosion that
will produce Yet_Another_BSD, to join {Free & Net & Open }BSD,
- It'll get ever more tedious - corollary of "A change is as good as a rest".
Let's clear the air, & adopt regular democratic procedures of some sort,
that would give our officials real moral authority at last, to replace the
antiquated autocratic method, where core annoints holy ones for life ;-)
Julian
--
Julian H. Stacey jhs@freebsd.org http://www.freebsd.org/~jhs/
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