Re: [gentoo-nfp] Council=CTO or Executive Board? [was: Re: Re: Re: Foundation reinstated]

["William L. Thomson Jr." <wltjr@gentoo.org>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 3134 bytes --]

On Mon, 2008-05-19 at 21:36 +0100, Steve Long wrote:
>
> Yeah but I disagree that the Council is limited to CTO, since the whole pupose 
> of Gentoo is to develop software. I'd argue the Trustees are a Supervisory 
> Board, and the Council an Executive Board within the two-tier model.

CTO is an executive position and title. Given full control over R&D,
technology, technical direction, etc.

But the council is not over the foundation wrt to hierarchy. It's
supposed to be a subsidiary board. For example, Council dictates to
infra. But infra lacks what they need to make council happy. Decision to
approve/fund, lies with foundation. So who's the top? ( not meant in
terms of power )

Something happens technically and Gentoo is sued. Does council then step
in and represent Gentoo. No the foundation does, and take full blame and
responsibility for councils actions or etc.

In a case like the present, where the council is to be replaced per some
policy. There is no entity over the council to see that through. Because
of our current structure. Nor are there any checks or balances.

More to the point that this hurts Gentoo technically. While companies
like Redhat can partner with say Intel. Making sure their stuff is
certified on Intel hardware. There would need to be liaisons if that was
to happen for Gentoo.

Like say the council says we want to support Intel's newest yet to be
released chipset. They mention that to the board/officers. Whom then in
turn contact Intel and facilitate a vendor relationship. Which is then
handed back to the council, to see through technically.

Again normal organization like you would see in any normal business
entity. Which the Gentoo Foundation is a business entity, so should have
some structure to reflect that. Given how chaotic at times our existing
structure is, or lack there of. I can see it making a huge difference in
the long run.

> The portage team strike me more as the CTO in that setup though I admit your 
> knowledge of these titles outweighs mine ;)

What does the portage team have to do wrt to R&D, or technical direction
of Gentoo as a whole? Portage is just one piece of the pie, that the
council oversees, decides the recipe, and bakes. Thus CTO, there is no
one beyond the CTO on technical matters. They are the top, and they
report in layman's to the CEO/Officers, and board at times if they are
split. For decisions that might involve them or to simply keep them
informed or in the loop.

Put it like this, Council answers to devs. Foundation answers to
community. At some point the council should answer to the Foundation as
well. Otherwise the community has no voice, only developers.

Although the Foundation, board/officers, will never dictate to the
council/CTO on technical matters. At best only suggest, based on the
will of the community, vendors, or etc. What the council does from
there, is up to them. As it is now. Because after all they know what is
best technically, and that's their call to make in the end.

-- 
William L. Thomson Jr.
amd64/Java/Trustees
Gentoo Foundation


[-- Attachment #2: This is a digitally signed message part --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 197 bytes --]