From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1K4ilp-0000bR-Hr for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:42:45 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 83D9CE040D; Fri, 6 Jun 2008 20:42:35 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 580E3E040D for ; Fri, 6 Jun 2008 20:42:35 +0000 (UTC) Received: from gentoo.org (xray.science.oregonstate.edu [128.193.220.51]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C51AC67135 for ; Fri, 6 Jun 2008 20:42:34 +0000 (UTC) Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 13:42:30 -0700 From: Donnie Berkholz To: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org Subject: [gentoo-project] Recommended reading on OSS governance Message-ID: <20080606204230.GA27477@comet> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Project discussion list X-BeenThere: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.17 (2007-11-01) Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Archives-Salt: c51c2cf1-27d4-41ac-8fd7-b75fb3103d42 X-Archives-Hash: 99895c9bdc726f9bcf099d0787f18978 Hi all, Here's a good story about how Debian's governance model has evolved over=20 time and what kinds of qualities are important to people involved in=20 things like our council: http://www.techforce.com.br/index.php/news/linux_blog/scientific_study_ab= out_debian_governance_and_organization A few interesting snippets: The authors find that while technical proficiency is an important=20 criteria for leadership in such a group, it is not sufficient. Despite=20 espoused preferences for =E2=80=98hands-off leaders,=E2=80=99 skill in b= uilding the=20 organization becomes increasingly important over time. ... Recent scholarship on open source communities suggests that any=20 governance system introduced must be meritocratic in order to attract=20 high quality contributions from voluntary members. ... Second, the authors show that even in a community of open source=20 programmers that espouses the value of technical contributions above=20 all else, members=E2=80=99 conceptions of leadership change over time to= =20 increasingly value organization building contributions. ... Developers were more likely to become a member of the leadership team=20 when their technical contributions were widely used by other members,=20 as opposed to the mere volume of their efforts. Contrary to a=20 simplistic meritocratic explanation, developers who engaged in=20 organization building behaviors were more likely to become members of=20 the leadership team. Thus, Debian may be a meritocracy, but merit is not measured solely by=20 ones=E2=80=99 technical contribution. Thanks, Donnie --=20 gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org mailing list