Governance Evaluation

[Mike Milinkovich]

Simon,

 

I think your analysis is well and fairly done. Unsurprisingly, you have a
good grasp of the constraints at play.

 

There are a few areas that you have pointed out that I think we may be able
to improve. Areas which come to mind are:

 

                - "Roadmap": A you've pointed out, capturing some baseline
principles on how releases will be conducted would be helpful. There could
be some controversy on this that I'm unaware of, but at face value it seems
plausible that we could add something useful there.

 

                - Under "Modern License", you point out that the Bylaws are
silent on the use of the GPLv2. However, the referenced Contributor
Agreement does require the use of "...under a suitable FSF (Free Software
Foundation) or OSI (Open Source Initiative) approved license". Does that
address your concern, or do you think that needs to be included in the
Bylaws?

 

                - On "Transparency", your points are valid. All I can say
that that now that we have the draft in place that we can demonstrate to the
community over time that transparency is a value that we all share. No
matter how (im)perfect a governance document may be, in the end it is deeds,
not words, which will shape the success of a community.

 

One quibble is that in the first section labelled "Open, Meritocratic
Oligarchy", I would point out that the small board in its current form
actually has one advantage, which is that because a 2/3's majority is
required for many major decisions it only takes two votes to block a
mistake. That doesn't change your larger point, but it does imply that a
useful check is in place against capricious or inhospitable decisions. 

 

 

From: gb-discuss-bounces at openjdk.java.net
[mailto:gb-discuss-bounces at openjdk.java.net] On Behalf Of Simon Phipps
Sent: February-03-11 7:38 PM
To: gb-discuss at openjdk.java.net
Cc: discuss at openjdk.java.net
Subject: Governance Evaluation

 

As an outgoing member of the v1 IGB I've posted comments on the new
governance draft on my blog, at
http://webmink.com/2011/02/04/rating-openjdk-governance/ and will be pleased
to discuss them either on-list or at FOSDEM this weekend. Let me know any
other way I can help.

 

S.