Nic, Nic Roets wrote:
A modern democratic government would have found a way to defuse the situation long ago.
I've actually thought about that for quite a while and came to the conclusion that the problems we're seeing are probably due to OSM being such an unstructured, little-governed project.
If this project were one with a strong leadership and a more rigid structure - so, skip the whole "OMSF doesn't want to rule the project" stuff and so on -, then that leadership could probably have pulled through the license change in a more organised fashion, and even one that is - or at least looks! - more "democratic". (I say "at least looks" because I have seen the inside of some such organisations and generally you have a situation where the board decides what info goes into the glossy membership magazine and what doesn't, so they usually get whatever they want rubber-stamped by a majority.)
But even if we had such a more strictly organised project with a strong leadership - something that I would oppose -, I don't really think that this situation could be "defused" in any way. I mean, look at it - how many people are making a fuss here? I think I count 6 or 7. Let's be generous and say there are 20. Could even the best, brightest, and most professional OSMF board ever implement a license change process where we would *not* have 20 people arguing bitterly and spreading/believing all sorts of FUD? Considering human nature, would it really be possible? Could one implement a process so even, so fair, so smooth, that you would *not* have 20 people who claim that their voice hasn't been heard, that everyone is making a big mistake, and that we're all doomed?
I'm not saying that perfection shouldn't be strived for, but in the end you have to break some eggs to make an omelette, and I think on the whole we're not doing too bad.
Bye Frederik -- Frederik Ramm ## eMail [email protected] ## N49°00'09" E008°23'33" _______________________________________________ talk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
