Gianluca Turconi wrote: > >>Hypothetical example: Google Corp. develops a large chunk of code for > >>LibreOffice. It's an important contribution, of course, and Google would > >>belong to the wider LibO community, but is this big contribution > >>enough to > >>join the steering group of TDF? > > > >No - but it enough for those people at google, who contributed this code > >to be eligible for a seat in the board. And it is enough to have a > >vote at board elections. > > Wow, that last sentence is *exactly* what I *don't* want. :) > > Such informal approach is impracticable when a *real* Foundation has > to take decisions in > order to legally defend the base code, create a sure development > roadmap (or nominate who create the roadmap) > and decide about controversial alliances. > > Stricter initial rules make stronger organizations in the long run. > Hi Gianluca,
hm, I guess most rules can be gamed, by any sufficiently determined adversary - so I would favour simple, effective bylaws, and use common sense otherwise. Additionally, you want to provide the proverbial Big Corp some incentive to join - note that this was one specific shortcoming of the OOo project. If they don't see a chance to have at least some say, why should they sponsor developers in the first place? Gnome e.g. has the advisory board, where corporations (in contrast to individual members) are grouped: http://live.gnome.org/AdvisoryBoard Institutional membership to Gnome has an annual fee (some lower 5-digit figure, IIRC), that allows the foundation to cover administrative costs, hold a conference etc. Personal membership, though, should have low/zero annual cost. Also, with the proposed membership committee, there'll be humans having the final say over who's becoming a member and who's not - pick that group wisely, and I don't see much issues with the process. ;) Cheers, -- Thorsten -- E-mail to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org for instructions on how to unsubscribe List archives are available at http://www.documentfoundation.org/lists/discuss/ All messages you send to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
