Re: RMS candidacy (was: Re: 10 Questions for All Candidates)

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Andy Tai <lichengtai yahoo com> writes:
> I don't think the concern over RMS makes sense.  The
> fact that RMS is willing to run for the board is
> itself a respect for the democratic process of the
> GNOME Foundation. He is not getting treated
> differently than anyone else, through his place in the
> history of free software and the GNU Project is
> unparalleled. He will not have more power than anyone
> else on the board over GNOME-related matters, if the
> GNOME Foundation works as designed.  

My expectation is that most people who have tried to get things done
with Richard in the room will not vote for him - and I think many of
the people expressing concern have been in that position, or been
close to someone else in that position. I could tell lots of
anecdotes, but it seems inappropriate.

The board currently runs by consensus, we never have to force votes on
things, for example. Changing to a process where every decision is a
conflict would be kind of unfortunate.

I also think it would be unfortunate if every conversation inside the
board and with organizations who want to contribute - or with the
press - ended up derailed and off-topic.

Basically the board's new chair would need to be a lot more forceful
than I currently am...

Havoc