Re: [to all candidates] about a DPL board
Hi,
On 12/03/13 at 00:54 +0100, Martin Zobel-Helas wrote:
> Hi,
>
> in the past i heared several ideas about a Debian Project Leader board
> similar to the SPI board.
>
> So lets imagine the project would have to vote for several members of
> this sort of board, with every member being on-board for (lets say) 3y.
>
> What do you think about this idea? Would it be worth in long term to
> establish such a leader board (and therefore a change to our current
> constitution) for the Debian Project, or do you think the DPL should
> stay a single person?
Powers inside Debian rely on a very subtle balance, and we need to be
careful about not breaking that balance.
A team to help the DPL is a very attractive idea, and it's great that
Stefano started his DPL helpers initiative. It could help share the load
with more people, get people to "train" and understand the job, etc.
But do we need an official board, or just an informal team of "DPL helpers"?
I think that for now, an informal team is enough.
Many of the actions that people expect from the DPL do not require special
powers (and those are generally the most time-consuming).
For those which require special powers, there are other solutions:
- delegate someone for a specific task and time
- limit the role of the helper to expertise/advise/drafting -- the DPL does
the final action or takes the final decision
Also, I think that we need more time to understand how such a board would
work, using the DPL helpers initiative as a prototype.
So, if elected:
- I will not push for a DPL team/board myself. Of course everybody is free to
discuss and push for constitutional changes
- I will continue the DPL helpers initiative
Additionally, I must admit that I quite dislike the "DPL helpers" name, and
I'd like to find another name. The best name I've come up with so far is
"Debian Driving Force".
Driving, because its role is to "drive" the project. Of course, not like
a bus driver that follows an agenda you don't control and takes you
wherever s/he want.
More like a taxi driver: people in the taxi/project decide via consensus
where they want to go, and how they want to go there, and the driver
takes them there following their requests.
Force (and not team), because I think that it's important to have an
open group of people, and not imply that there are people "in" and
people "out".
Lucas
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