Re: Questions Regarding Delegates
On Tue, 27 Feb 2007, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 26, 2007 at 04:46:55PM -0600, John Lightsey wrote:
> > The first power enumerated to the DPL in the Debian Constitution is the
> > power to appoint and remove delegates. My questions are directed at
> > determining how you as DPL will use this power to guide the Debian
> > Project.
>
> Even if that is true, this does not necessarily mean an effective DPL
> has to use this power. I believe it is very well possible to be an
> effective DPL without doing much in the realm of formal delegations.
>
> > 1) Do you believe past DPL's have used the power of delegation
> > effectively?
>
> Mostly, yes.
Ack. It's easy to believe that they could have given more delegations to
be able to do more... in fact you give delegations when you see an
opportunity, but you can't create the opportunity.
If nobody steps up for some specific project, it's highly unlikely that a
DPL is going to ask dozens of DD until one is interested by a specific
project. And if the project is of core importance to the DPL, he will do
it by himself.
> > 2) Are there any current delegations you plan to change?
>
> No.
Same for me.
> > 3) Are there any developers with positions of authority who should be
> > given the official sanction of being delegated this authority?
>
> Delegation should only be used if it would make things possible that are
> not possible without delegation. If they are not asking to be a
> delegate, I don't see why I should do so.
And furthermore, I'm not interested in legalese, I'm interested in
concrete results for the project. I'd rather take that time to improve the
situation than to break communications with the concerned developers
because of this useless measure.
> > 4) Do you believe that ongoing delegations should be limited in time or
> > indefinite?
>
> Delegations should be ended when they are no longer effective, not when
> a set amount of time has passed.
Ack.
> > 5) Do you feel it is better to delegate additional developers to an area
> > of responsibility or to replace delegates when that area is not being
> > handled effectively.
>
> This is something that should be decided on a case-by-case basis; it
> makes little sense to make a general statement on this subject.
In general, I'd rather add members because it's the best way for them to be trained
by the older members, but there could be special cases of course.
> > 5.1) In new areas that cannot be effectively handled by a single
> > developer, would it be better to delegate the authority to a team or to
> > delegate the authority to an individual and allow that individual to
> > form their own team?
>
> Same as above.
No generic response indeed. Humans are complicated and you can't throw a
bunch of unrelated developers and call them a team, unless they can do
their task in a highly independant manner.
> > 6) Will you explicitly rescind and redelegate all delegated positions if
> > you are elected DPL?
>
> No.
Me neither.
> > 7) Will you resign from any delegated positions you currently hold if
> > you are elected DPL?
>
> N/A.
AFAIK, there's no explicit delegations for Alioth admins. In any case, I
don't plan to stop this. It makes little sense within a DPL board to have
all members resign from all their work ... when the DPL board is precisely
elected because its is composed of highly-implicated members who know the
project very well.
> > 7.1) Do you feel that section 2.1.2, namely "that the Leader cannot
> > appoint themselves as their own Delegate", should be understood to mean
> > that the DPL should not hold any delegated positions even when those
> > delegations were made by a previous DPL?
>
> No. Delegating oneself could theoretically be used to create loopholes
> so that a future DPL has no power anymore. Continuing an
> already-existing delegation could not.
Ack.
> > 8) Do you feel that more rapid turnover in delegated positions would be
> > beneficial or detrimental to the project?
>
> Detrimental. Experience is a scarce commodity.
Ack.
> > 9) Is there anything about your approach to delegates which will make
> > your administration different from those of past DPLs that was not
> > mentioned?
>
> I don't foresee many differences in my approach to delegating, no.
Having a DPL board means having more eyes to watch the project and thus
it's more likely that we find more opportunities to delegate some
projects. But as we have more people at the DPL position, it's also
possible that we need less delegates because more projects can be handled
by the board itself.
We'll see what the future brings us. :-)
Cheers,
--
Raphaël Hertzog
Premier livre français sur Debian GNU/Linux :
http://www.ouaza.com/livre/admin-debian/
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