Politicians. They are a certain type of people. I do not like them. Many do not like them. I think if there's one thing all of man has in common, whether he be Christian or Muslim, black or white, young or old, American or European, is a dislike of politicians. But then-- why on earth do we allow politics to complicate software? Note: Sunday Eve Column.
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Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:2006-06-13
Member since:2006-01-21
Re Thom_Holwerda : Perhaps it's me, but the two sequences
And when that day comes, they appear to care about what we think, but in reality, all the time they are debating about what we supposedly want, all they really think about is "what do I need to say to get votes?
and
GNOME has no leaders or an elected board of some sort that can take important decisions after weighing the pros and cons as discussed on d-d-l.
confused me a little bit, esp. when considered that they appear in the same article written by the same person without an odd number of negations relating the two statements.
It's early in the morning here (at least for me after coding until 2 AM ), so perhaps I'm not in the shape to grasp a subtle aspect of your article, but :
You seem to suggests to introduce a board of community leaders which does the final decissions, no problem with that. Further, you seem to have some gripes about the sideeffects of democratic political systems. But you have also stated in at least one reply I've read so far that dicatotorship is no option either (glad to read this, btw).
My question : How should a board be elected, without campagning and dragging the whole discussion once again ? Since it's without doubt a controversial topic, it would definitly dominate the discussions during the election process.
Side note : I don't know about the situation in your country, but here in Austria general elections are approaching in autum, and the signal to noise ratio is trailing pretty fast, reaching even lower levels than usually. And if your only input channels are the evening news and the political discussions featured in in mainstream media,then it can be difficult choosing a party or individual to receive your vote. If (that's only my humble opinion, mind you) more people would pay attention to the day-to-day discussions and decisions in the large time slots between elections, then perhaps it wouldn't be so easy to replace an on-topic discussion (which is more or less the case with the discussion on the GNOME list, at least that's the impression I had) with loud ramblings and oportunistic behaviour.
regards
Member since:2005-07-07
Just on the subject of dictators... in OSS several of them exist - and the communites surrounding those projects seem entirely happy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_Dictator_for_Life
Suddenly politics don't become as much of a problem - as there is a descision maker who is never worried about saying the right things to become elected next time. They try and make descisions for the best of the project as they have nothing to gain or lose by "pandering" or "rhetoric". Of course this only works if the dictator *IS* benevolent. And frankly - it is open to a takeover or revolution, but that won't happen as long as a dictator remains benevolent.
Member since:2006-03-31
I really dislike the discourse within the free software community about how there's too much politics. If there's too much politics here, why not switch to a corporate system where the only choices are "Yes" and "No?"
The reason why we have these debates is because we have a choice. We, on an individual basis, get to choose what we want to use. I think it shows a great deal of health within the free software movement that people are having dialogues about there opinions. YOu don't see that in a corporate software system.
Member since:2006-03-10
Member since:
2006-06-13
Wikipedia: "Politics is a process by which decisions are made within groups. "
we actually have a 'leader' who has the final say in the important matters: David. He, in the end, makes the final call.
Yes.. so you actualy propose to give up democracy and erect an omiscient and omnipotent leader...well people try to do this all the time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship
and well, all of them failed after some time as this "crippled" democracy is the best we have, eather in goverment or in OSS. Of course we(oss) should have somebody, who shows us the direction, but its not the elected person but rather "natural born" leader, the person whom others follow ...