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On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 5:48 PM, Daniel Robbins <drobbins@××××××.org> wrote: |
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> On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 2:30 PM, Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o> wrote: |
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> |
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>> |
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>> You act as if Gentoo is doing something egregious here. In fact, I'm |
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>> not aware of any organization that operates in the manner you suggest. |
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>> If you were aware of one you'd be citing it instead of arguing in the |
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>> abstract. |
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> |
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> |
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> So you are unaware of any |
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> organization that produces software which solicits feedback from the people |
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> who actually use the software? EVERY organization does this. Find me one |
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> that doesn't. The burden of proof is on you. |
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You didn't propose soliciting feedback from users. You proposed |
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giving non-contributing users the power to vote for members of the |
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board of directors. |
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As far as orgs that do not do this, I'll go ahead and cite a few: |
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Software in the Public Interest (Debian, Wikipedia, etc) |
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https://www.spi-inc.org/membership/guidelines/ |
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(non-contributing members do not get to vote for the board) |
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Ubuntu |
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https://www.ubuntu.com/community/governance |
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(Closest thing to a user rep there is the Community Council, which is |
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only elected by what we would call developers.) |
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https://launchpad.net/~ubuntumembers |
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Funtoo Solutions |
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(Couldn't find published bylaws, but with only one director named I |
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have a pretty good guess as to how he was selected.) |
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To avoid an extra reply, you clearly advocate giving users a direct |
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vote in the governance of the organization in your original proposal. |
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Quoting your original email: |
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> Therefore, I propose that the Foundation have a new position of User Representative and that these officers have an official (voting) role in the Council decision-making process. |
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> Encourage Gentoo users to become members of the Foundation through outreach and other initiatives. |
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So, basically users become members. Members vote for Trustees. |
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Trustees appoint User Representative. User Representative gets to |
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vote in Council decision-making, and Trustees get to remove Council |
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members in your proposal. |
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The key part of the above is users becoming Foundation members, who |
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ultimately govern the Foundation through their representatives, the |
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Trustees. |
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In any case, my point is basically that no organization I'm aware of |
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allows non-contributing users to vote for their board of directors. |
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Gentoo already has a path for contributing users to vote for the |
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board. |
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-- |
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Rich |
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