Bryan J. Smith wrote: > At the same time, while I wasn't in Germany, if this _indeed_ came up > in a TAC or other committee -- that's "good enough" for me because > it's at these TAC/committees where _real_people_ who have a "stake" > in the process show up.
Just for the record, I was at the TAC session in Germany and the issue most definitely did *not* come up. OTOH, there were all kinds of fun and games regarding an LPIC-3 »super-guru certification« comprising six speciality exams. Boy, would I ever hate to redo *that* every two years! > [Government of LPI] > As long as they are not made "behind the scenes," the Meritocracy+Executive > approach is _very_efficient_. A lesson from recent political history: Unlike with other European countries, the German government wisely decided to keep the vote on whether to join the Euro (common EU currency) within the parliament rather than put it to a referendum, because at the time it was fairly obvious that the general populace would have given them a resounding »Hell, no!« So, if chances are that the community will give you an answer that you don't like, better not ask the community in the first place. As far as the »meritocracy plus executive« approach is concerned, having a meritocracy is well and good if you're running a free software project, such as the Linux kernel. This implies that the meritocracy does get to make the actual decisions. In a real meritocracy like the Linux kernel, you ought to be able to increase your influence to the decision-making process according to what you contribute. This extends all the way up to Linus's »trusted lieutenants« and Linus himself, who have proven their capabilities to the Linux community over and over again. Sure, not all their decisions are spot on the first time around, but we do trust them to get things right in the long run, and they generally do. In this model there is no room for an appointed »executive board« with veto power, since if the people on the board had the interest and know-how to fulfil their positions based on their standing in the community, they would be part of the meritocracy already, and no special »board« would be required! Hence, BY DEFINITION, the people on the board are stupid about what they have veto power over. Thus their apparent function must be to hamper the work that is being done, for the benefit of their sponsoring organisations. I think we can all agree that converting the Linux kernel project over to »meritocracy plus executive« would be the single worst idea in the history of Linux development. There seem to be very few projects around where »meritocracy plus executive« really works. Most of the bigger ones, with the possible exemption of Debian, are pure-meritocracy, often with a »benevolent dictator for life« at the top. Look at Python and Guido van Rossum, Perl and Larry Wall, X11, KDE or GNOME. Fedora may be the most obvious example of M+E, but even this is losing mindshare to Ubuntu (which is pure-executive) right, left, and center. If M+E is so »very efficient«, then why does this happen, and how do the other projects manage? Now, LPI is not a free software project, and we should not expect it to be managed like one. We've recently seen a number of interesting people take over positions within LPI who do not have a history with the free-software community, but come with impeccable credentials from the business world. This is potentially a good thing, because it gives us a fresh handle on many things. On the other hand, there is a significant danger that too much of a »business outlook« will hurt relations to »the community«, which is where LPI originally came from, and the current LPI executive should keep this firmly in mind. After all, LPI purports to be a certification »of the community, by the community, for the community«. It would do well to align its processes closely with what the community expects and is used to in order to uphold this philosophy. Think »bazaar«, not »cathedral«. If the public perception of LPI changes to »yet another certificate« (regardless of whether we, who are close enough to the process to at least get some insight, and who care, subscribe to this POV or not), all the credit that it started out with as the »community-based certification« will be lost, and this will be very difficult to re-gain. We -- and that means not just the LPI executive, but the sum total of all people involved in LPI work, including folks like us who go out to actually *prepare* candidates, or teach general Linux classes where we try to nudge the participants towards considering LPIC -- have to work at making LPI the #1 Linux certification, and as we all know this is not an easy task. It requires cooperation at all levels. In recent years we have made significant inroads towards convincing the community that a non-proprietary Linux certification is actually a Good Thing To Have Around -- when there used to be significant antagonism to the idea, and still is in places. *Please* do not jeopardise all this work by sacrificing so much of what we used to use as »ammunition« when »spreading the word« among the heath^Wuncertified, just to make LPIC more appealing to »business« minds. Your candidates still come from the community. Anselm Lingnau (This is my personal opinion and not that of Linup Front GmbH.) -- Anselm Lingnau ... Linup Front GmbH ... Linux-, Open-Source- & Netz-Schulungen Linup Front GmbH, Postfach 100121, 64201 Darmstadt, Germany [EMAIL PROTECTED], +49(0)6151-9067-103, Fax -299, www.linupfront.de _______________________________________________ lpi-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://list.lpi.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lpi-discuss
