Governance and responsibility

[David Barrett]

Ok, so we all agree the OSI doesn't represent every single person, and 
we all agree it doesn't represent nobody.  And we can only guess on 
where the truth is in between this, though some of us have strong (and 
differing) suspicions.

It seems we all agree that the OSI should be more transparent and 
inclusive in its decision making, and Eric has said this is the OSI's 
priority #2 (with #1 being license proliferation).

So other than simple semantics of what it means to be represented, what 
precisely are we debating?

-david

Andy Tai wrote:
> Eric, you are kind of in self indulgence.  Many people
> refused to work on software not compliant with the OSD
>  before the OSI and the OSD even existed.    The OSD
> came from another project  and organization, Debian
> and the Software in the Public Interest.    
> 
> And when do the CEOs begin to appoint the
> representatives of the hacker community?  And when did
> the hackers in China, Russia, India or Brazil appoint
> the OSI to be their speaker?
> 
> --- "Eric S. Raymond" <esesrhthyrsusom> wrote:
> 
> 
>>We know that the community entrusts us with certain
>>important jobs by its
>>behavior.  Most hackers will refuse to work on
>>projects without an OSD
>>certified license.  Major project sites, including
>>SourceForge and Berlios
>>reflect that policy by not accepting new projects
>>under non-OSD compliant
>>licenses.  That's a pretty good indicator of the
>>community's trust.
>>
>>When corporations or governments want the
>>open-source community's 
>>cooperation or imprimatur, they generally come to us
>>-- not just
>>for lilicencepproval, but for other major
>>initiatives as well.  When the 
>>technology trade press wants the open-source
>>community's take on 
>>an issue, they normally do likewise.  These are good
>>indicators of the
>>OSOSI'smbassadorship role outside the hacker
>>community.
>>
>>In four days, the President Emeritus of OSOSIthat
>>would happen to be me)
>>will address a web seminar of approximately 200
>>corporate CEOs and CIOs
>>having been asked to do so specifically as a
>>knowledgeable and 
>>authoritative spokesperson for the open-source
>>community.  And this
>>sort of thing is *routine*.  
> 
> 
>>As Thomas Paine once put it: "Lead,
>>follow, or get out of 
>>the way."
>>-- 
>>		Eric S.
>>Raymond
>>
> 
> 
>