OpenJDK Community Bylaws and Governing Board

[Doug Lea]

On 02/06/11 05:24, Jonas Tingeborn wrote:
>>>>> The Governing Board consists of five individuals:
>>>>> * The Chair, appointed by Oracle;
>>>>> * The Vice-Chair, appointed by IBM;
>>>>> * The OpenJDK Lead, appointed by Oracle; and
>>>>> * Two At-Large Members, nominated and elected as described below.
>>>>
> Though, I am concerned that specific companies are written into the bylaws.
> Wouldn't it be better to simply prop the roles with Oracle and IBM people when
> the bylaws take effect and then let people on the board earn their right to be
> there like the other groups?

FWIW: My take is that corporations these days are too cowardly.
Here, they insist on appointment to avoid some (for them)
worst-case scenarios. My sense is that if Oracle and IBM ever
do anything that would make the community not want them on
the GB, then we will have much bigger problems than just
GB membership rules. So I tolerate their paranoia.

I do agree that it is not very nice not to have members
from Red Hat, Azul, Google, or others. But as I mentioned,
limiting the initial GB to what seems to be minimum
possible size has the advantage of being less likely to stall
for years (as did some previous efforts).

-Doug