On 14 Jul 2020, at 5:47, jdow wrote:
> On 20200714 02:03:06, Kevin A. McGrail wrote:
>
>> Marc and others about voting,
>>
>> The ASF is a meritocracy not a democracy. Voting privileges are
>> earned by demonstrating merit on a project. That is the project
>> management committee aka the PMC. Discussion with the PMC on this
>> change started in early April with a vote in early May by the PMC.
>
>
> That raises a question that deserves an answer. Who votes on whether
> somebody has earned merit? I suspect it is a closed system. {o.o}
The best starting point on that is
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/SPAMASSASSIN/ProjectRoles
but the TL;DR is: Yes, it's a "closed" self-perpetuating system just
like the ASF is throughout.
I should add that one does not need to contribute by writing code to
become a committer or a PMC member. I was invited to become a committer
(and ultimately, a PMC member) based primarily on my activity on this
list and in the SA Bugzilla. It is also entirely conceivable that one
could become a committer and a PMC member based primarily on rule or
documentation contributions.
And YES, there are intrinsic problems with self-perpetuating
"meritocracy" which neither the ASF model generally nor the SA Project
specifically are theoretically immune to. We are, however, resistant. We
don't define "merit" by credentials or résumé or reputation, but by
contributions to the SA ecosystem broadly. I believe that by keeping the
definition of "contributions" wide open to all efforts to make the SA
environment better, we avoid the worst pitfalls of meritocracy.
--
Bill Cole
bill@scconsult.com or billcole@apache.org
(AKA @grumpybozo and many *@billmail.scconsult.com addresses)
Not For Hire (currently)
> On 20200714 02:03:06, Kevin A. McGrail wrote:
>
>> Marc and others about voting,
>>
>> The ASF is a meritocracy not a democracy. Voting privileges are
>> earned by demonstrating merit on a project. That is the project
>> management committee aka the PMC. Discussion with the PMC on this
>> change started in early April with a vote in early May by the PMC.
>
>
> That raises a question that deserves an answer. Who votes on whether
> somebody has earned merit? I suspect it is a closed system. {o.o}
The best starting point on that is
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/SPAMASSASSIN/ProjectRoles
but the TL;DR is: Yes, it's a "closed" self-perpetuating system just
like the ASF is throughout.
I should add that one does not need to contribute by writing code to
become a committer or a PMC member. I was invited to become a committer
(and ultimately, a PMC member) based primarily on my activity on this
list and in the SA Bugzilla. It is also entirely conceivable that one
could become a committer and a PMC member based primarily on rule or
documentation contributions.
And YES, there are intrinsic problems with self-perpetuating
"meritocracy" which neither the ASF model generally nor the SA Project
specifically are theoretically immune to. We are, however, resistant. We
don't define "merit" by credentials or résumé or reputation, but by
contributions to the SA ecosystem broadly. I believe that by keeping the
definition of "contributions" wide open to all efforts to make the SA
environment better, we avoid the worst pitfalls of meritocracy.
--
Bill Cole
bill@scconsult.com or billcole@apache.org
(AKA @grumpybozo and many *@billmail.scconsult.com addresses)
Not For Hire (currently)