>>Alain: Consensus is my choice as well. Some people don�t believe in it,
>>but the difficulties of voting as the arbitrator of our decisions may
>>very well persuade those "non-believers" to climb aboard the Consensus
>>boat, and use voting sparingly and only for consultative purposes. Or
>>so I will argue!
>
> Alain, there are two ways to get consensus:
>
> 1. Argument
> 2. Force
>
> And the argument way is _quite_ difficult. Consider arguing with thrity
> people, all from different backgrounds, all with different opinions, about
> if a special distribution arrangement should be made. Would there ever be a
> consensus? I think not. That leaves the other way, which none of us (I
> hope!) want.
Adrian: Exactly, but we should try to get it by argument before going to
majority rule or whatever system we choose.
>>Adrian: We have come across our first real disagreement, where it's not
>>just a case of, I disagree but I don't really mind. It's now, I
>>disagree, do it my way. We have no mechanism to deal with this and we
>>need one if we are to succeed.
>
> I think we do. I think it's called "forking". More later (in another message).
Adrian: As mentioned in my other letter, I'd like to avoid forking where
possible (not always, just where possible).
>>Alain: This is indeed the crux of the problem. Who has the authority to
>>make decisions?
>
> The person doing the work, I'd argue.
Adrian: But everyone's doing the work. The coding is only as important as
the GUI and the collaboration aspects. There will be more than one person
doing the work, that's the point of collaboration.
>>What do we vote on?
>
> Not much, I'd hope.
Adrian: There will be some things though and these need to be dealt with.
>>When? Who decides?
>
> Who decides? The person or persons with the authority to make decisions,
above.
Adrian: But we don't know who that person is.
>>How do we verify
>>and enforce the decisions arrived at? What do we do when enforcement
>>breaks down?
>
> Best would be to aboid such situations. But the ultimate end enforcement of
> any contract is a court.
Adrian: We can't avoid such situations. We need to answer Alain's questions
and set up policies on these matters before the problems arise. Then when
they do arise, we just go through the motions.
>>
>>Adrian: Our group is beginning to show signs of breaking apart and
>>we've hardly started, there have been some rather strong words posted
>>here lately (though thankfully none personal, just purposeful).
>>
>>Alain: No, were not breaking apart. We are heatedly debating critical
>>issues that are value-ladden. All posts have been purposeful. No
>>personal attacks. All is well, I say!
>
> I agree. Though I can see how someone might of gotten that impression from
> some of my posts. I plan to fix that with a post on forking.
Adrian: Forking is not a way of keeping the group together. It's a way of
splitting it up. In the early stages I don't think OpenCard could survive a
fork, there's just not enough support for it. Later on, forking will become
a viable option to solve disputes, but I think it is extremely risky to fork
now.
>>Adrian: For any group to work it needs to set down rules that describe
>>what is expected of its members and what consequences not living up to
>>those expectations incurs. This applies to our group too. These rules
>>will cover not only expected behaviour and such things, but licensing
>>issues as well.
>>
>>Alain: Absolutely! I am pleased that the importance of these issues is
>>being recognized. Despite the fact that it doesn�t add a single byte to
>>our Source Code, the Collaboration aspects of our group are just as
>>important as the programming.
>>
>>Adrian: ... ie The official version of OpenCard is distributed under
>>this licence, like it or lump it. If you don't like it, don't
>>contribute.
>>
>>Alain: Exactly!
>
> And, I'd add, by this person.
Adrian: By this person/organisation.
>>Adrian: How to make this decision will need to be in the original
>>rules.
>>
>>Alain: Agreed.
>
> It sounds like we're getting back to my Constitution proposal.
Adrian: Yes, I'd forgotten about that. My apologies. Is it available on
the web somewhere. I believe it was for the UFP but it should be able to be
adapted to OpenCard easily.
