Re: Questions To Answer

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs eazel com>]

Bart Decrem <bart@eazel.com> writes:

> It seems to me that there are two fundamental issues that need to be
> resolved:
> 
> 1- How do we make sure that the Governance of Gnome properly reflects the
> truly international nature of the project.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> I think we need to see if we can find ways to not have the power (such as
> it is) of the foundation lay with a US legal entity.  Perhaps the way Alan
> suggests is the right way to go and we should take another look at a model
> where Gnome Foundations are legal entities that promote, market and are
> meeting spaces for Gnome in specific regions.  The boards of those
> foundations could be appointed as apposed to elected.  And then there could
> be a steering committee that is not attached to a legal entity, and that is
> elected by all the members of the Gnome community and that is worldwide in
> composition and influence.  So the steering committee would then do release
> coordination etc.

It's worth noting that the Debian project is as international as
GNOME, and it's governance is through a legal entity formally
constituted in the US. I think the reasons Debian chose to organize
that way apply to the GNOME project too.

 - Maciej