Re: [Usability] Better look Re: (no subject)

[Estradin Solaris <estradin gmail com>]

> All the community can do as a group of people is to point out that we
> need a change, express what's been wrong and what is the range of
> acceptable solutions and let some individual take the lead and make it
> so.

I can't agree with that. You seem to suggest that ultimately only an
individual can take decisions. I believe that a more community driven
decision making process can be made: commissions. I will use
parliaments as an example, and since I am spanish, I will use the
parliament of Spain, although most parliaments in contintental Europe
work in a similar way. There are 350 members of the parliament. The
power ultimately resides in them, but the decision making very rarely
lays upon the 350 MPs. Commissions are set up, so small groups can
discuss and plan, and then they ask for the assent of the rest of the
members. Thus, the decision is taken by all 350 MPs, but only 10 or 12
actually worked in the decision.

How does this apply to any open-source project, not just Gnome? Well,
it's easy. There's a community, made up of users, programmers and
'group-members' such as us. The groups are open, and anyone who wants
to become part of one can actually do it. That makes decision making
within the groups rather difficult. If 10 members of the group would
commit themselves to drafting the proposals, and then submit them to
the group for approval, the decision would be legitimate, since it
would have been approved by a majority (or a plurality) of group
members, while it would be feasible, since the working group would be
made up of 10 members. That is a quite workable group.

That wouldn't be the same as 'voting for the theme', since the 10
members wouldn't come up with three, or ten, possibilities, but one. A
is the theme, please vote YES or NO.

All this comes from the top of my mind, I have not thought too much
about it, so the figures are quite rough. What I mean is that
delegation can make an open project just as open, and still be able to
make decisions efficiently. It's moving away from direct democracy to
representative democracy.

Maybe this is too philosophical, but i don't think the current model
can work a lot longer. It's actually not working too well any more.

Rafa.-