Re: Discussing issues

On Apr 16, Egbert Eich wrote:
 > But, XFree86 isn't exactly new. We have gone thru these things before.
 > We have made shared decisions, we have had ways to deal with deciding
 > about interfaces, extensions etc.

Egbert,

Thanks for your comments.

As I read that, it occurs to me that much of the current problem, (as
I see it), comes from the fact that the process of making shared
decisions has not been visible to people outside of the XFree86 core
team.

The opening up of the devel list could certainly help with the
transparency issue, but it seems that it has not been open long enough
for any significant shared decision to be made there. So there's not
much for an outsider like me to use as a basis for determining the
level of functionality of the resolution processes within XFree86.

 > Nothing of this is formalized/ codified lots of it is dictated by
 > common sense.

This lack of formalization is a specific point brought up by Keith
Packard:

	I don't blame the current leadership for this
	problem; there are no guidelines or processes in
	place to deal with conflict in the development
	community. As the project has grown, it has failed
	to adapt to that growth by building formal
	structures necessary to govern a large and diverse
	group of people. (http://lwn.net/Articles/26918/)

As I've listened to the recent teleconferences, my perception is that
the call for a change in governance is not about a personal rejection
of those currently in leadership; but it is a recognition that a
project as large and important as X needs formal structure for
resolving conflict, (since in the normal course of development any
"governance" body should just stay out of the way and let the
programmers get their work done).

So, my personal questions are:

1) Does the XFree86 core team or board of directors think there is any
   need for changing/formalizing conflict resolution procedures?

2) If so, is there anything currently being done to address this?

-Carl

-- 
Carl Worth                                        
USC Information Sciences Institute                      [email protected]