[gentoo-project] Re: [gentoo-dev] Nominations open for the Gentoo Council 2008/2009

[Richard Freeman <rich0@gentoo.org>]

Richard Brown wrote:
> 
> This was the first of many nominations for the incumbent council that
> gave no reason as to why they should be voted for in this election, as
> several of them have accepted their nominations with no further
> qualification, and flameeyes seems to think himself above having to
> justify why he should be elected, so I provide, for your
> entertainment, the following blog posts:
> 
> A Council of Successes: An attempt to analyze what the incumbent
> council have achieved during their tenure.
> http://arbearohooooen.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/a-council-of-successes/
> 

Moving this to -project since it doesn't really belong on -dev (well, 
none of this does other than for the instructions to post nominations on 
-dev).

Would I personally be happier if the council had done a little more that 
was solid - maybe.

Do I think that they basically got nothing done at all - no.

Here's my thinking:  This is a volunteer-based distro.  Such 
organizations are not best run by issuing edicts from the castle, but by 
influencing and building consensus.  Many of the issues that were 
brought to council were resolved on their own by discussion on -dev/etc. 
  For example, the whole slacker archs issue was probably brought up in 
reference to mips (although it isn't fair to single them out, I'll still 
use them as an example.  In part due to the discussion, mips decided to 
revert to a non-stable arch, which helped alleviate the problem.

My feeling is that problems getting solved without direct council 
involvement is a GOOD thing.  Now, maybe there are a few things that 
would benefit from a little more involvement.  I'd really like to see 
PMS continue to gain more official backing as it matures (although this 
has had some progress).

Also - many of the issues that have gone slowly aren't really technical 
in nature, but rather are policy-oriented.  This certainly is within the 
council's domain, but not necessarily what they have focused on in their 
developer careers with gentoo.  I've noted that they've been very 
accepting of ideas discussed on the lists, and that is a good place for 
them to be in.

My feeling is that maybe the council could have done more, but on the 
other hand I'd rather not see them issuing huge policy changes on a 
monthly basis.  Gentoo has room to improve but it isn't a distro in need 
of over-arching changes to be successful.

Here is a thought - maybe the council would be more active if we only 
put half the slots up for election every other year.  I think part of 
the problem is that with the council starting off new every year it 
takes some time for them to get a sense for their actual power.  1/6th 
of their meetings are either their first meeting or their last meeting - 
which aren't going to be big get-stuff-done meetings.
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