Re: Please Join SPI (was Re: The Sky is Not Falling)
On Fri, May 07, 2004 at 05:15:59PM +1000, Parsons, Drew wrote:
> Let me explain what I mean. I am a member of the Debian Project, I am a
> Debian developer.
>
> I am not the DPL. I entrust that leadership role to Martin.
You vote (or can) for the DPL, and thus exercise oversight over that
position.
> I am not the release manager. I entrust that role to Anthony.
> I am not an ftp master. I entrust that role to Michael and the others.
> I am not the DAM, I entrust that role to James.
> I am not on the security team. I entrust that role to Martin and others.
Likewise, these positions are all ultimately accountable to the
developers in one way or other.
So while you do rightly delegate tasks to the DPL or others in a real
sense, you also have a say in their selection, and if convinced that
they are performing poorly, could run for the position yourself.
Similarly with SPI. You could trust the financial management to the
treasurer and general decision-making to the board. But you have a
right (and some would say duty) to exercise oversight and make sure that
the people you're comfortable with are the ones in those positions.
> So why suddenly is SPI, the Debian legal corporation, such a different
> matter? Why is it that you are telling me *I* must be a part of SPI myself,
> rather than entrusting it to those who can manage it, as I do for every
> other part of Debian? What makes SPI any more important than any other of
> Debian's facets or activities?
I'm saying it's just as important. We had almost 500 people vote in
each of the last two DPL elections. We had just over 100 vote in the
last SPI board election and just over 50 in the one before that.
If you consider it important to vote for the DPL -- even though you are
happy with letting the eventual winner carry out tasks without you
paying a great deal of daily attention to it -- why would it be
automatically less important to vote for the SPI board or president?
-- John
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