While I am all for openness in general, I share Howard's concerns in
this specific case and think we should continue with private nominations.
Daniel
On 12-09-18 11:15 AM, Howard Butler wrote:
On Sep 18, 2012, at 9:53 AM, Richard Greenwood <richard.greenw...@gmail.com>
wrote:
I agree that this is the first year that nominations have been
publicly discussed and it is a departure from previous years. I
followed Jeff's lead when I nominated Chris.
But hey, we're an open community, I think it's even in the name
somewhere. And spreading a little recognition around to hard working
members of our community surely doesn't hurt.
I disagree. The history of the award has been a cloistered deliberation of
private nominations. The award is not a political exercise, or at least it
hasn't been to this point, and public nominations tip things toward the
lobbying direction. Every open source contributor wouldn't mind an award in the
field of excellence, and every contributor deserves a pat on the back or two.
Open nominations opens up a more than few cans of worms:
- I won't say some stuff about a person in a public nomination that I would in
a private one. First off, I don't want to embarrass them, as some people are
embarrassed by public fawning.
- Not every activity and action needs to be billboarded. If you look at the
list of past winners, a common trait they all share is they all have kept their
heads down and done a lot for the community as whole without regard to
recognition.
- I might not want everyone to know who I'm nominating.
- Are we voting on the award? Lobbying the committee? What does a public
nomination achieve other than to provide a (biased) public attaboy? There are
plenty of opportunities for those that do not have to be conflated with a
nomination process.
The award is selected by an exclusive group of individuals, and this act makes
it an exclusive award. The Oscar or Peabody or Pulitzer of open source GIS is
much more interesting than the People's Choice. Let's keep it that way.
Howard
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Daniel Morissette
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