Re: GR: Disambiguation of Section 4.1.5 of the constitution
Hi folks,
We seem to have stalled on this proposal. There have been, if I
recall correctly, three seconds to my proposal, and one request for a
change, namely to explicitly list the foundation documents in the
constitution, which also had one other supporter.
This proposed amendment to my proposal would simplify things,
as there is no external list of foundation documents to maintain, and
it would also put a high bar to modifying the list of foundation
documents (which is not in itself a bad thing: there have been a
concern about an explosion of ``foundation class'' documents
ossifying current mores and practice).
I have no objections to this amendment; however, people who
seconded my proposal would need to be polled.
Would the amended proposal be more to the liking of people?
Or would people prefer the original proposal? Given the new voting
mechanism, we can have both on the ballot. However, at this point
there are not enough seconds for either variant to actually have a
GR.
I am appending the proposal, and the amendment, to this mail
message.
manoj
======================================================================
4. The Developers by way of General Resolution or election
4.1. Powers
Together, the Developers may:
1. Appoint or recall the Project Leader.
2. Amend this constitution, provided they agree with a 3:1 majority.
3. Override any decision by the Project Leader or a Delegate.
4. Override any decision by the Technical Committee, provided they
agree with a 2:1 majority.
- 5. Issue nontechnical policy documents and statements.
- These include documents describing the goals of the project, its
- relationship with other free software entities, and nontechnical
- policies such as the free software licence terms that Debian
- software must meet.
- They may also include position statements about issues of the day.
+ 5. Issue, modify and withdraw nontechnical policy documents and statements.
+ These include documents describing the goals of the project, its
+ relationship with other free software entities, and nontechnical
+ policies such as the free software licence terms that Debian
+ software must meet.
+ They may also include position statements about issues of the day.
+ 5.1 A special clause applies to the documents labelled as
+ "Foundation Documents". These documents are those
+ that are deemed to be critical to the core of the project,
+ they tend to define what the project is, and lay the
+ foundations of its structure. The developers may
+ modify a foundation document provided they agree with a 3:1
+ majority.
+ 5.2 Initially, the list of foundation Documents consists
+ of this document, The Debian Constitution, as well as the
+ documents known as the Debian Social Contract and the
+ Debian Free Software Guidelines. The list of the documents
+ that are deemed to be "Foundation Documents" may be changed
+ by the developers provided they agree with a 3:1 majority.
6. Together with the Project Leader and SPI, make decisions about
property held in trust for purposes related to Debian. (See
s.9.1.)
======================================================================
Rationale: The clause being modified has been seen to be quite
ambiguous. Since the original wording appeared to be amenable to two
wildly different interpretations, this change adds clarifying the
language in the constitution about _changing_ non technical
documents. Additionally, this also provides for the core documents of
the project the same protection against hasty changes that the
constitution itself enjoys.
======================================================================
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> + 5.2 Initially, the list of foundation Documents consists
> + of this document, The Debian Constitution, as well as the
> + documents known as the Debian Social Contract and the
> + Debian Free Software Guidelines. The list of the documents
> + that are deemed to be "Foundation Documents" may be changed
> + by the developers provided they agree with a 3:1 majority.
+ 5.2 The list of foundation Documents consists
+ of this document, The Debian Constitution, as well as the
+ documents known as the Debian Social Contract and the
+ Debian Free Software Guidelines. The list of the documents
+ that are deemed to be "Foundation Documents" may be changed
+ by the developers only by changing this clause, which needs
+ according to 5.1 a 3:1 majority.
Advantage: This makes the list in 5.2 the authoritative list, which
makes it easier later to see which documents are in fact foundation
Documents. (Or to speak in computer slang: normalization of data.)
--
Economists are still trying to figure out why the girls with the least
principle draw the most interest.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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