Secondly, given the original intent of the concept of a PMC, I am curious as to why the board permitted umbrella PMCs such as XML and Jakarta.
The board did not create umbrella PMCs -- XML was Xerces and Jakarta was Tomcat/Watchdog. They grew beyond that because their names implied more, and nobody wanted to slow them down just because they had moved beyond their original scope. In fact, I had to threaten to shut them down before the groups were even willing to restate their charters to reflect what they had grown into.
Ultimately, it is very difficult (and often unreasonable) to insist that a group of volunteers adopt a more rational set of self-management principles, even when they run smack into the problems caused by their own disorganization. Status quo is such a warm and fuzzy place, and most people just want to code on their own projects. Besides, everyone likes growth, and very few people like restructuring.
What some folks fail to understand is that a hierarchical structure, like XML and Jakarta, does not reduce the workload of the board at all. In fact, in my entire history on the board, I never once had to deal directly with an issue on any of the single-level projects -- those projects have always been self-governing because everyone in them knows *they* are responsible for making the decision, not some other group in "management".
....Roy
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