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Question for Ted Walther: Delegation



Hi Ted,

I'm a little confused on your interpretation of "delegation".  Consider
the following two examples in which you have appointed tasks to others:

1. In a thread from yesterday in which people were seeking out your
opinions, you appear to "delegate" someone else (who had not expressed
either interest or availability) to do the necessary background research
for you:

> If you think there is more information in those messages besides the
> fact that Ubuntu isn't harming Debian, and Debian isn't harming Ubuntu,
> then I hereby delegate you to summarize those mails, in your own words.
> I'm ready to hear what you have to say.

2. In your platform from the 2005 election, you appointed 12 people to
conduct in-depth research on gender issues and write a report within a
three-month deadline.  Again none of these people had expressed interest
or availablility, and in fact it was made clear by at least some of them
that they were not interested in doing this research for you.

So:

My question is, how do you distinguish "delegate" from "command" (or its
lesser cousin "request politely")?  If you were DPL and you delegated
tasks in this fashion, would you expect them to be done as a matter of
course?

(I realise example #2 was taken from your 2005 platform, but if your
stance on delegation has changed since then, I'd also be interested to
hear how).

Ben.



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