Re: [gentoo-project] [RFC] Triumvirate in Gentoo

[Michał Górny]

On Thu, 2020-06-04 at 14:41 +0200, Haelwenn (lanodan) Monnier wrote:
> [2020-06-04 09:15:37+0200] Michał Górny:
> > All that said, I'd propose to meet in the middle -- following
> > the ancient tradition, establish a triumvirate in Gentoo.  It would be:
> >
> > 1. Technical lead -- a person with exceptional technical talents that
> > would build the vision of Gentoo from technical perspective, i.e. make
> > a distribution that people would love using.  Initially, this role could
> > be taken by the QA lead.
> >
> > 2. Social lead -- a person with exceptional social skills that would
> > build the vision of Gentoo from community perspective, i.e. make
> > a distribution that people would love contributing to.  Initially, this
> > role would taken by the ComRel lead.
> >
> > 3. Organization lead -- a person with (exceptional) business skills that
> > would take care of all the financial and organizational aspects of
> > Gentoo, i.e. make a distribution that sustains.  Initially, this role
> > would be taken by the Foundation president.
> >
> > Three seems to be a very good number -- on one hand, it's more than one,
> > so the others can stop any single one from getting absolute power.
> > On the other, it's small enough for them to be able to actively work
> > together and directly establish a common set of goals (i.e. via
> > an agreement rather than a majority vote).
> >
> >
> > WDYT?
>
> Sounds quite interesting, would they also have elections like other
> bodies in gentoo?
> This way we do not end up with three dictators / immortals.

Some kind of elections, yes.  Not sure how yet, and I'd rather discuss
that separately later in order not to diverge too much from the idea
itself.

> And I think there should maybe be two per lead, it's still very easy
> to reach consensus at 6 but it avoids getting to single-handed decisions,
> specially when something only actually concerns one viewpoint/skill.

The whole point is that we want 'single-handed decisions'.  Of course,
that doesn't mean arbitrary decisions.  There could be a whole lot of
advisors that influence the final decisions but there should be just one
person combining them into something consistent.

I don't think there really are any decisions concerning one triumvir
here.  Surely, they have their distinct areas but every decision affects
the others as well to some degree.  Even if this means saying 'I do not
mind this'.

-- 
Best regards,
Michał Górny