[gentoo-dev] Gentoo metastructure reform poll is open

[Daniel Drake <dsd@gentoo.org>]

Please keep future information regarding this poll public on gentoo-dev or
similar.

[publicising on gentoo-dev with permission from Grant Goodyear]

Dear all,
  Polls are open for the metastructure reform vote.  All Gentoo developers are
eligible to vote.

The proposals up for vote:

- The "FOSDEM" proposal
  http://dev.gentoo.org/~plate/fosdem-proposal.xml

- Koon's "Alternative" proposal
  http://dev.gentoo.org/~koon/metastructure.xml

- G2boojum's "Oldschool-small" proposal
  http://dev.gentoo.org/~g2boojum/proposal.html
  with a small council (7-13 members)

- G2boojum's "Oldschool-large" proposal
  http://dev.gentoo.org/~g2boojum/proposal.html
  with a large council (such as 0.1*Ndevs + (Ndevs+1)%2 members)

- Ciaranm's "Oldschool-small-with-slacker-boot"
  http://dev.gentoo.org/~g2boojum/proposal.html
  with a small council (7-13 members), and with :
  http://dev.gentoo.org/~spb/ciaranm-slacker-boot-proposal.txt
- Ciaranm's "Oldschool-large-with-slacker-boot"
  http://dev.gentoo.org/~g2boojum/proposal.html
  with a large council (such as 0.1*Ndevs + (Ndevs+1)%2 members)
  and with :
  http://dev.gentoo.org/~spb/ciaranm-slacker-boot-proposal.txt

- Keep the current system ("Keep-current")
  http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/index.xml
  http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=1&chap=5

- Reopen nominations ("Reopen-nominations")

- Form a task force for additional study ("Task-Force")
  -core mail (7 June 2005) from jstubbs, 42A4D555.7010009@gentoo.org
  (will be available on gentoo-dev as a response to this message)




[adapted from Thierry Carrez' mail]

Fellow Gentoo developers:

The metastructure poll is now open. Here you will find the details of
the election procedure. This is adapted from Aron Griffis' thorough
explanation on how to vote.

Poll subject
------------

You have to choose your preferred metastructure model(s) for Gentoo. The
metastructure is how projects/teams are organized and about the
existence and nature of an upper decision body. The candidate proposals
(and the "shortnames" we use in the election) have been presented in
Grant's opening email.

Election method
---------------

We are using the Condorcet method to tabulate votes and choose the
winners.  The Condorcet method is widely viewed as superior to the
traditional plurality method since it allows voters more power to
express preferences, and encourages voting truthfully instead of
siding with an apparently strong candidate.

Here is the nutshell explanation of the Condorcet method.  If you just
want the general concept of how winners are chosen, this might be
enough (quoted from electionmethods.org):

    In the Condorcet election method, voters rank the candidates in
    order of preference. The vote counting procedure then takes into
    account each preference of each voter for one candidate over
    another. It does so by conceptually breaking the election down
    into a series of separate races between each possible pairing of
    candidates, hence it is sometimes referred to as a "pairwise"
    method. If one of the candidates beats each of the other
    candidates in their one-on-one race, then that candidate wins.
    Otherwise, the result is ambiguous and a standard procedure is
    used to resolve the ambiguity. Unlike conventional plurality
    voting, Condorcet voting gives voters little incentive to falsify
    their true preferences.

There exist a number of algorithms to implement a Condorcet election.
For our election, we will use "Cloneproof Schwartz Sequential
Dropping" to resolve ambiguities.  This algorithm is in use by
a number of other free software projects, including Debian, Software
in the Public Interest, and UserLinux.

If you'd like more explanation than is provided by the quote above,
please take a look at the following links:

    http://electionmethods.org/CondorcetEx.htm
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorcet_method
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloneproof_Schwartz_Sequential_Dropping

Election Period
---------------

The election has started on Tue June 7 00:00 UTC and runs for a week,
closing on Mon June 13 23:59 UTC. Please vote as early as you feel
comfortable so that any unanticipated technical difficulties can be
resolved before the end of the election.

Election Corpus
---------------

All current Gentoo developers (active during the election period) are
allowed to vote.

How to vote
-----------

We are using dev.gentoo.org to collect ballots this year.  The
procedure is as follows:

    $ votify --new metastructure2005

This will generate a ballot for you, ~/.ballot-metastructure2005
The order of the candidates is randomized in each ballot.  The next
step is to edit the ballot with your favorite editor.  You will find
the following instructions at the top of the ballot:

# This is a ballot for the metastructure2005 election.
# Please rank your choices in order; first choice at the top and last choice at
# the bottom.  You can put choices on the same line to indicate no preference
# between them.  Any choices you omit from this file are implicitly added at the
# end.
#
# When you're finished editing this, the next step is to verify your ballot
# with:
#
#   votify --verify metastructure2005
#
# When that passes and you're satisfied, the final step is to submit your vote:
#
#   votify --submit metastructure2005
#

Notes
-----

- The four election officials are:
  Aron Griffis (agriffis)
  Grant Goodyear (g2boojum)
  Thierry Carrez (koon)
  Olivier Crete (tester)

  The presence of more than one election official is intended to ensure
  integrity in the counting process.
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