From owner-freebsd-chat Tue Feb 4 18:28:24 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2179A37B401 for ; Tue, 4 Feb 2003 18:28:21 -0800 (PST) Received: from lariat.org (lariat.org [63.229.157.2]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2EA4D43E4A for ; Tue, 4 Feb 2003 18:28:20 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brett@lariat.org) Received: from mustang.lariat.org (IDENT:ppp1000.lariat.org@lariat.org [63.229.157.2]) by lariat.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id TAA20801; Tue, 4 Feb 2003 19:28:07 -0700 (MST) X-message-flag: Warning! Use of Microsoft Outlook renders your system susceptible to Internet worms. Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20030204190652.04041d70@localhost> X-Sender: brett@localhost X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.2 Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 19:27:58 -0700 To: Magnus Bäckström From: Brett Glass Subject: Re: dillon@'s commit bit: I object Cc: Larry Sica , "" In-Reply-To: <20030205001941.X1138-100000@rockerduck.eep1> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20030204120535.02835100@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20030204110551.00c54680@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20030204120535.02835100@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 04:19 PM 2/4/2003, Magnus Bäckström wrote: >Sketch a structure you believe would work in practice. Here's one structure that's stood the test of time in similarly amorphous communities. The community surrounding an operating system consists of people who come and go and have varying degrees of involvement and interest. It's also hard to enumerate the members of the community at any given time. We can't identify (for example) the new sysadmin who has just taken a job involving the administration of a farm containing thousands of machines running the operating system, nor can we tell that the previous sysadmin LOST that job. So, how do you do a relatively democratic vote within such an amorphous community? One way is to use the approach taken by science fiction conventions (such as the WorldCon -- the World Science Fiction Convention). Anyone can, relatively cheaply, purchase an attending or voting membership in the convention, and then is able to vote for the Hugo Awards (a collection of science fiction literary awards) and for the locations of future conventions. The registration money is used to fund gatherings of the group and cover administrative costs. I'm oversimplifying how it works here, but suffice it to say that it's a very clever, democratic system that's well suited to science fiction fans, who are about as hard to herd as programmers. It allows people to come and go while the organization endures. Regular votes of the membership should be taken to elect a governing board which is above, and distinct from, the development team in the organizational structure. The Board would have under it not only the development organization but also teams that do end user advocacy, documentation, release engineering, security, fundraising, Web services, and relations with corporations (e.g. securing tech docs that enable driver support). The memberships of these teams could, and should, overlap. The governing board should be able not only to resolve disputes within and between the teams but take questions to the current membership list for referenda if necessary. Adding this additional tier to the organization would actually simplify life for the developers, who would not be burdened by responsibilities that were handled by a different team unless they chose to join that team also. The rules of the organization would require the teams and the Board to operate openly except when absolutely necessary (for example, when legal action was being discussed). This more "mature" structure would enable better division of labor and responsibility, dispute resolution by parties not inflamed by the dispute, and advocacy unhindered by the preferences of the developers (some of whom want to live in a cozier space than they'd have to inhabit if they were both governing a "hot" project and trying to code). --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message