On Dec 14, 2007 1:21 PM, Garrett D'Amore <garrett at damore.org> wrote: > Glynn Foster wrote: > > Sure, other groups could (and probably should) have an opportunity to > > influence > > decisions but ultimately it's up to the key stakeholders to figure out the > > right > > direction. I'm sure Sun would shut down the constitution pretty darn fast if > > there was a set of irresponsible amendments to it where one community > > group, for > > example Advocacy, was dominant - that's not in anyone's best interests, not > > even > > the Advocacy group. > > > > I don't think even Sun has that power anymore. It could revoke the > right use the trademark, I suppose. It could "take its toys and go > home". But the core constitution and the code that has already been > released does not strictly require Sun's continued participation. > (Though, if Sun did abandon the group, I think it would shrivel and die > pretty darn quickly.)
Indeed, the charter states that: "5. The OGB shall be the supreme and final arbiter of all matters pertaining to the OpenSolaris Constitution." Sun could certainly choose to revoke usage of all of its assets and require the community to "start over somewhere else." However, as you've pointed out, I think that would be rather disastrous. > Alternatively, truly separating the governance of the engineering and > the advocacy groups from each other seems a good idea. Some kinds of > engineering decisions should not, IMO, be subject to the whim of > non-engineering folks, and I'm not sure that engineers should really > have that much say in matters like branding or user group organization. > > I guess this is why at big companies the Engineering and Sales > organizations are totally separate, and usually don't share a reporting > structure until you get to at least an executive VP level. I think other, successful projects have proven that this works. For example, Ubuntu has a "teams" concept: http://www.ubuntu.com/community/ubuntustory/governance That consists of Local Community Teams (similar to our user groups), Technical Board (similar to ARC but more involved), and a Community Council (similar to our OGB). Each one of these has well-defined control over specific areas. -- Shawn Walker, Software and Systems Analyst http://binarycrusader.blogspot.com/ "To err is human -- and to blame it on a computer is even more so." - Robert Orben
