[ox-en] Maintainership for the project
- From: Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de>
- Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 08:49:10 +0200
Hi all!
On the conference we decided to think about the decision making
structure of the project. Because this is an important question for
the whole project we agreed this should be done on the discussion
lists. This is an attempt to start this discussion.
At the moment the decision making is done on [pox]
[http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/liste/] which is a mailing list open to
everyone interested enough in the project to contribute in this way.
Like all other Oekonux mailing lists it is archived. People on this
list have a shared responsibility for the project as a whole. At the
moment this includes all the mailing lists and web sites of the
project, and the conference.
Today [pox] is a mixed language list (i.e. German / English) but
participants are asked to use English if it is not too difficult for
them because it is assumed that everyone understands English and thus
the accessibility is higher. The day-to-day work of the project is
organized there and also this mailing list is the official contact
address of the project.
In addition to this mailing list I am the still-in-charge maintainer
of the project. To me this means that I'm the ultimate responsible
person for the project. In practice this means that if a decision is
to be made I try to reach consensus (i.e. nobody has to object) on
[pox]. In fact as far as I remember there has been only one important
decision which I made without waiting for a consensus on [pox] in an
objectively damaging and at the same time pressing situation.
To complete the picture there is a registered association in Germany
(Projekt Oekonux e.V.) [http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/verein/]. This
is the formal token we use when we need it - in particular for all the
money issues like web site hosting and conference.
Now some people said they are not happy with the current decision
making structure. On the conference in the spontaneous session on the
relationship of the German speaking and English speaking part of the
project we decided to make this a topic in the project and if the
respective discussion has a result to act accordingly. This is
perfectly ok with me because at the time I declared myself as the
maintainer I emphasized I'm always ready to have an improved model. Of
course I stand to this.
In fact personally I'm somewhat glad this happens. I understand
maintainership not only as taking responsibility by making decisions
but also as taking responsibility by doing concrete work. Right now
the day-to-day work is done more or less exclusively by me and I'd
really welcome to share this with others.
Also I think it is important that any decision making process in any
group needs to be at least passively supported by the members of this
group because otherwise it is alienated to this group. Insofar this is
also an attempt to reduce alienation and a practical example for the
OHA topic.
To kickoff the discussion I'd find answers to these questions
interesting:
* What is your opinion about the current decision making process?
* Do you see a need for a change or is the current situation ok for
you?
* If you want to change something: Do you want a fundamental change
or rather some small adjustments?
* How shall the decision making process in this project look like?
* Who should decide and how should these person(s) be determined?
* What should the mode of operation for these people be?
* What decision making process is most in line with Oekonux theory?
* Would you be ready to help maintaining the project?
Mit Freien Grüßen
Stefan
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: projekt oekonux.de