[gentoo-project] Recommended reading on OSS governance

[gentoo-project] Recommended reading on OSS governance

[Donnie Berkholz]

Hi all,

Here's a good story about how Debian's governance model has evolved over 
time and what kinds of qualities are important to people involved in 
things like our council:

http://www.techforce.com.br/index.php/news/linux_blog/scientific_study_about_debian_governance_and_organization

A few interesting snippets:

 The authors find that while technical proficiency is an important 
 criteria for leadership in such a group, it is not sufficient. Despite 
 espoused preferences for ‘hands-off leaders,’ skill in building the 
 organization becomes increasingly important over time.
 ...
 Recent scholarship on open source communities suggests that any 
 governance system introduced must be meritocratic in order to attract 
 high quality contributions from voluntary members.
 ...
 Second, the authors show that even in a community of open source 
 programmers that espouses the value of technical contributions above 
 all else, members’ conceptions of leadership change over time to 
 increasingly value organization building contributions.
 ...

 Developers were more likely to become a member of the leadership team 
 when their technical contributions were widely used by other members, 
 as opposed to the mere volume of their efforts. Contrary to a 
 simplistic meritocratic explanation, developers who engaged in 
 organization building behaviors were more likely to become members of 
 the leadership team.

 Thus, Debian may be a meritocracy, but merit is not measured solely by 
 ones’ technical contribution.

Thanks,
Donnie
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