Re: Initial draft proposed constitution (v0.3)
> Hi,
> >>"John" == John Hasler <john@dhh.gt.org> writes:
>
> John> I mean software specifically for managing democratic meetings,
> John> able to take and tally votes, etc.
>
> I know of no non-commercial software that does this. IRC seems
> like a good next-best solution ...
Assuming I get a say at all, I think IRC is a lousy choice, especially
for a group this large.
I believe that official discussions on policy, especially policy that
requires approval of the membership, should be done publically, and
archived if possible.
IRC doesn't really allow that, IMHO. IRC is really limited to the few
who can get online at a given time, etc. I'm involved in several
organizations at college, and I know how hard it is to schedule a
meeting for 10 busy people, let alone 100+. In addition, some people
don't like the nature of IRC, and don't use it at all. If important
issues to the Debian Project were officially discussed and decided on
IRC, then many developers would probably feel left out and alienated.
I know I would (if I were a developer, which I currently am not).
I think email is the best route. It is easy to archive (just think of
the number of lists we currently archive). It isn't dependent on
scheduling a time convenient to everyone. It allows for more complete
arguments to be made on a topic, and it reaches everyone.
There may be no non-commerical software that will help. Part of the
problem is that I feel that there is no set rules developed yet for
parliamentary proceedure via electronic media. The only place I can
think of offhand where formal parliamentary proceedure is used to
decide issues electronically is on USENET, for newsgroup
creation/modification/deletion.
I think we can help on both of these. And I think we have the
beginnings of it already, in the Debian Bug Tracking System.
I don't mean that a proposal should be treated as a bug, but rather
that the bug tracking system already: 1) automtically identifies and
numbers new topics for discussion (bugs, currently), 2) autocatically
collects and archives messages that relate to each new topic, in a
searchable, catalogued way, 3) automatically sends new messages to
every interested party (via a general mailing list, and to specific
people when needed). 4) Has a control mechanism by which topic status
may be modified. All of these are features needed (IMHO) for a decent
email-based parliamentary procedural assistant.
Obviously, there are some modification that need to be made, but after
some quick cosmetic changes and perhaps some DNS tweaking, I think it
could start to be used immediately, and the niceties (an automatic
voting mechanism, an automatic seconds tallyer, etc) can be developed
as time goes by.
>
> manoj
> --
> Just because they found Martin Bormann's skull doesn't mean he's
> dead, my best beloved; for everyone knows that competent observers
> from every neutral country have reported sighting an old man in
> Argentina whose head is wrapped in bandages, and only the hunted eyes
> show, winking and blinking beneath the thousands of cranial
> splints... William T. Vollman, "You Bright and Risen Angels"
> Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
> Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
>
>
> --
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
>
--
Buddha Buck bmbuck@acsu.buffalo.edu
"Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our
liberty depends upon the chaos and cacaphony of the unfettered speech
the First Amendment protects." -- A.L.A. v. U.S. Dept. of Justice
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
Reply to: