Re: Questions for all candidates: decentralization of power
Le Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 06:44:23PM +0000, Clint Adams a écrit :
> I had meant to send three sets of questions on Thursday morning,
> but things kept coming up, so I will send an unfinished one now.
>
> 1) 114 people have commit access to webwml.
> 2) wanna-build access is restricted
> 3) An ftpmaster cabal
> 4) The tech-ctte has the power to appoint its own members.
> 5) Is there any part of Debian that should be restricted
> to a small subset of developers, and if so why?
Dear Clint,
I also think that there are many restricted operations that should be opened.
Write access to our website, chosing the priority and section of our pacakges,
triggering bin-NMUs, designating new members, inspecting new packages submitted
to our archive, …
I see two possible reasons to keep some restrictions.
a) Social. Just writing that we think that restrictions must be lifted is not
enough; we need to be convincing. If a majority of DDs agree to open only a
part of the infrastructure, I think that it is better to accept the remainig
restrictions, and re-open the discussion in one or two years later when we can
show the benefits.
b) Security: if one DD account is compromised, some mechanisms can limit the
harm caused by intruders. For instance, there could be a temporisation system
that delays for a couple of hours the effect of some commands, and I would agree
to have a restricted number of persons with the ability to bypass this
temporisation, for instance when some critical dysfunctions have to be
corrected immediately.
Lastly, I think that we need some referees for our technical disagreements, and
the technical comittee fits well that role. If I am elected DPL, I will ping
its members and ask them if they would like to leave their seat to fresh
persons. I do not think that it is a bad thing that the comittee is not
elected. Its role is not to proportionaly represent currents of opinion within
Debian, but in contrary to make decisions that reflect the Project's consensus.
Have a nice week-end,
--
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan
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