Re: release issues

[George <jirka 5z com>]

On Fri, Jul 14, 2000 at 04:44:24PM -0500, kelly@poverty.bloomington.in.us wrote:
> >Any legal framework for some of these will not do us any good.  The
> >foundation has no "power" to enforce it's decision.
> 
> I thought one of the purposes of this Foundation was to make official
> releases.  It seems to me if they hold the imprimateur, they DO have
> power to enforce their decision.

Yes it is their job, but they don't actually have "the power" in reality.
Even if you put it in the bylaws, they do not have the power in practice.
The written powers of the foundation should reflect reality.

It is like the steering committee.  The only reason it has any power is
because it 1) includes core maitnainers 2) has the respect of the
maintainers.

It has some power however.  It can make decisions within the space of general
consensus.  There are some small decisions which most people accept either
way, or perhaps it can decide on dates as long as everyone agrees on the
approximate dates.

The responsibility of the board is then to figure out what the
maintainers/contributors would accept and decide on that.  Just like any
elected polititian should.  Otherwise the board must create consensus,
otherwise its decision will just be ignored.

There are many things to decide for the board where the
maintainers/contributors have absolutely no interest in.  This will include
marketing stuff and funding different things.  Plus in funds the board
actually has real power as it actually "has" the funds.

Unfortunately for the board, they don't have an army, police nor enough guns
to implement any decision.

George

-- 
George <jirka@5z.com>
   The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds,
   and the pessimist fears this is true.
                       -- James Branch Cabell