Re: Yes to Publicity! Not to Anonimity! Was: Re: GNOME Foundation Annual Elections - proposal

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Andreas J. Guelzow">

> On Sun, 2003-09-14 at 00:34, Aleksey Sanin wrote:
> > if you want to say something and want people to hear you then it's
> > better to say this in public and not in a room with closed doors and
> > nobody except you inside.
> 
> I could not have said that better. 

Some Foundation members feel that their personal vote is *not* a statement
they want other people to hear, which renders the above argument 100% moot.

I think both of you need to consider the pressures that some members of the
community are under when it comes to voting. This is a very tightly knit
group, with friendships, business relationships, volunteer comradeship, and
so on. Right now, each member's personal vote *is* necessarily a public
statement, which results in some people not voting and some people voting
'safely'. This has a much stronger effect on each voting member than an
airy-fairy concept of public responsibility to 'do the right thing'.

You should also consider that this *will* affect current Board members, and
there's a strong chance the effect will not be positive. I can comfortably
say this as the 'most popular' Board nominee at the previous elections. Did
some people vote for me because they felt they had to? Did some people vote
for me because they were worried that I would be annoyed, and treat them
differently? I don't know. I hope I deserved it, but I can't discount some
manipulation of the vote due to social pressure. That's bad, and whether or
not it affects my standing, I don't care.

(All of this, of course, relies on the implementation of an appropriate and
secure system of voting.)

- Jeff

-- 
linux.conf.au 2004: Adelaide, Australia         http://lca2004.linux.org.au/
 
      "I'm offering you my body, and you're offering me semantics." -
                              Caitlin, Clerks