Re: Thinking about Delegating Decisions about Policy
On Fri, Sep 06, 2019 at 11:32:06AM +0200, Bill Allombert wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 05, 2019 at 09:17:59AM +0200, Didier 'OdyX' Raboud wrote:
> > Le mercredi, 4 septembre 2019, 23.53:06 h CEST Bill Allombert a écrit :
> > > On Wed, Sep 04, 2019 at 11:04:57PM +0200, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> > > > > * Most decisions are not just technical decisions, in many/most cases
> > > > >
> > > > > the decisions have answers that are all correct, but it just depends
> > > > > on the weight of specific trade-offs. How those are weighted depends
> > > > > heavily on each individual. This also seems rather unfair, as it's
> > > > > taking the natural and expected biases of a small set of people in
> > > > > the project and forcing them into the entire project.
> > > >
> > > > Honestly, if the answers are all correct and we've been going around in
> > > > circles since like forever, then having a small team decide that one of
> > > > these correct answers is now the preferred one and we're going with it
> > > > (after listening to all the arguments) hardly seems unfair to me.
> > >
> > > But then it become a steering committee and not a technical commitee.
> >
> > Actually, it seems that the Technical Committee has kinda always been doing
> > both of these things: arbitration, and steering.
>
> The way the TC members are selected is not compatible with taking the role
> of a steering committee (which need to be properly elected rather than
> self-selected).
If we're going to change the rules about what the TC does -- or create a
whole new committee -- it makes sense to change this part of it, too. So
while I agree with you that this is a concern, it doesn't have to be a
fatal problem.
> (To avoid misunderstanding, I am not in favor of Debian getting a
> steering committee. The steering should come from the DPL, who is
> elected)
I agree that whoever does "steering" needs to be elected. However, I am
not convinced that one elected representative is good enough for that;
both for long-term stability (DPLs change up to once a year, which is
hardly enough for a long-term vision) as well as for allowing multiple
viewpoints (the DPL is just one person with his or her own biases; no
matter how well the DPL represents the viewpoints of the project at
large, it is always better to have multiple people in a position with
this kind of power).
So I think that Debian could have some limited benefit from a steering
group, but I do agree that it needs to be an elected group, not an
appointed one.
--
To the thief who stole my anti-depressants: I hope you're happy
-- seen somewhere on the Internet on a photo of a billboard
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