[License-discuss] discussion of L-R process [was Re: [License-review] Approval: Server Side Public License, Version 2 (SSPL v2)]

[Chris Jerdonek]

On Fri, Mar 15, 2019 at 4:00 PM John Sullivan <johns at fsf.org> wrote:

> I think some of this can be done without changing tools. Just as an idea
> from someone who can't volunteer the time to help with it, each license
> application could be assigned to a caretaker responsible for maintaining
> a dossier/brief for the application, listing points raised in
> discussion, posted regularly to the list (more regularly than monthly,
> and with a tagged subject heading). The dossier becomes a collaborative
> document that people in the discussion can be asked to refer
> specifically to when making their arguments.


This is starting to sound a bit like Python's PEP process (Python
Enhancement Proposal), which I would recommend:
https://www.python.org/dev/peps/
A PEP document summarizes things like the proposer, background, pros, cons,
decider, etc. and it evolves over time. While a PEP discussion could be
spread across multiple mediums and channels and get contentious, the PEP
document itself is updated over time and summarizes everything in one
place. When a final decision is made, the decision is added to the PEP with
the rationale. In OSI's case, such a document could also say how people
voted, to provide more transparency. It would also be a valuable reference
to refer back to.

--Chris



> The quality of the dossier
> would help outside people assess the process, and help the OSI board.
>
> I've found the summaries that started recently to already be very
> useful.
>
> The tools you mention don't use AI or something to sort discussions, so
> in the end you're still relying on people to put the right points on the
> right issues, to create new areas for new issues, etc. I also don't see
> how they solve the problem of some people having louder voices, speaking
> rudely, or carrying on various personal grudges or undisclosed agendas.
> Those all seem like problems to me best addressed by finding more
> volunteer facilitators for OSI, no matter what platform is used.
>
> (I do like Discourse, and we use it at the FSF.)
>
> -john
>
> --
> John Sullivan | Executive Director, Free Software Foundation
> GPG Key: A462 6CBA FF37 6039 D2D7 5544 97BA 9CE7 61A0 963B
> https://status.fsf.org/johns | https://fsf.org/blogs/RSS
>
> Do you use free software? Donate to join the FSF and support freedom at
> <https://my.fsf.org/join>.
>
> _______________________________________________
> License-discuss mailing list
> License-discuss at lists.opensource.org
>
> http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/attachments/20190315/a553326a/attachment.html>