newsforge story

[Chris Gray]

Steve Mallett wrote:

> No one is going to like this, but...... its my experience that the more
> people put in a position of having to make a decision the more likely a poor
> decision is made.  And talk about slowing things down!  Good grief!

The idea of focus groups is useful iff the board has sufficient confidence in
the work of the group that a license recommended / deprecated by the group
can be accepted / rejected more quickly than would otherwise be the case.
If as Russ says the board is absolutely determined never ever to make any
mistakes again, then the required threshold of confidence will indeed be
rather high ...

If I understand the term `focus group' correctly, a `focus group' is not
required
to make a decision.  In the marketing world where the term originated, one puts
things in front of a `focus group' and watches how they react.  In the context
of
OSI, I would expect a focus group to study a license, discuss it, take up points

of contention with the authors, and submit a report on the debate to the OSI
board.  In fact a real `focus group' wouldn't even need to take the last step,
the board would be monitoring the mailing list using a hidden camera. ;>

Regards

Chris

--
Chris Gray
VM Architect, ACUNIA


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