On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, Geir Magnusson Jr wrote: > I want to share a conversation that I hope sheds some light on what it > means to be on the PMC. > > I was talking to a friend yesterday who said > > "I fear additional responsibility". > > I told him that he should have nothing to fear, as what's being asked > for is that the committers simply continue to pay attention. His > response was > > "paying attention is a _big_ responsibility" > > "That's true", I thought. So I told him > > "but if you are interested in the project you are going to do that > anyway. IOW, most committers are paying attention to what's coming in" > > "jakarta is just so big though" > > Aha! > > Being on the PMC doesn't mean you have to watch *every* commit in > *every* project. The requirement of the PMC is that it, as a committee > delegated oversight authority by the board, is responsible as a *group* > for that oversight. If we can organize ourselves so that there is > coverage that to an outside observer would be deemed reasonable and > effective, then we satisfy the needs of the ASF. (The board could void > this interpretation, but so far has indicated that it wouldn't).
If a PMC member doesn't watch every commit in every project - as surely few, if any, do - s/he needs to at least have trust in enough other PMC members to cover the projects s/he is not involved with. Because, as a PMC member, s/he is still responsible for decisions made by the PMC. That's a good deal of trust to place in others s/he might not encounter anywhere other than on the [EMAIL PROTECTED] list. -- Martin Cooper > > So this person, who participates in <foo> and some components of > Jakarta Commons, would just continue to do what he normally does - > participate as he does already. > > The only difference is that we would do our job and ensure that he > understands the rules about contributions, CLAs, and what code > contributions require the Incubator for IP accountability. ( Incubator > => Largish contributions from outside of the ASF. Largish is loosely > defined : Small patch- and file-sized commits and contributions don't > need Incubator, an entire database project from Oracle does. The line > is somewhere in the middle :) > > Anyway, I hope this example helps. It certainly gave me insight into > what this individual was struggling with, and I assume that he isn't > the only one... > > geir > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
