Re: More votes in Debian? Any idea for improvement?

[Thomas Goirand <zigo@debian.org>]

On 03/15/2012 10:10 PM, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 03:11:28PM +0800, Thomas Goirand wrote:
>> On 03/12/2012 04:04 PM, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
>>> On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 03:28:53AM +0800, Thomas Goirand wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> If you see projects like Openstack or oVirt (sorry for the examples
>>>> taken from my area of expertise...), they have elections every 6 months
>>>> for project leaders in this or that area of the project.
>>>>
>>>> In Debian, we just elect a DPL, and then we hope that he appoints people
>>>> who then can make decisions on the behalf of Debian.
>>>>
>>>> I feel strange that such a big project as Debian appears to work in a
>>>> less democratic way than some software which has adopted open governance
>>>> (truth, this is the new hype, but still...).
>>>
>>> Debian is not a democracy, nor does it need to be.
>>>
>>> We have one elected representative, whose job it is to make sure that
>>> the project runs smoothly. But having an elected representative doesn't
>>> necessarily mean that this person is the best for the job. Technical
>>> tasks should have experts doing them, otherwise they'll not work; and
>>> while an election can give you many things, experts in a particular job
>>> is probably not one of them.
>>
>> So if I understand well, you're saying that the DPL knows better than a
>> majority that would vote
> 
> Absolutely not. I'm not sure how you derive that from my above
> statement. I said "having an elected representative doesn't [...] mean
> this person is the best for the job", which seems like exactly the
> opposite.

Well, there's only 2 choices here. However you put it, we need a way to
appoint. Either the DPL knows better (maybe thanks to a relationship
with the team we're talking about, but it's not always about teams...),
either the majority knows better. There's no 3rd option here, so please
make a choice between these 2! :)

So, in case you think the DPL should know better, please answer my
questions about it.

> I'm saying there are a number of jobs that require experts, not elected
> representatives.

IMO, there are key positions that we (I mean, all DDs) all should be
able to appoint, because we all understand what the work is (for
example, ftp team, release team, etc.), and some where we know less (for
example DSA...). Thoughts?

Thomas