Re: Criteria for a successful DPL board
On Tue, 13 Feb 2007, Kevin Mark wrote:
> The important thing is to get things done, not whether its done or
> decided by one, two or more people. I'd expect instead for the DPL to
> delegate things instead of trying to do it all.
History has shown me that delegation is not an effective way to lead the
project. It's a useful tool to resolve particular problems/aspects when he
doesn't care too much on the topic or where he's quite confident that the
person is going to do what he expect him to do.
But you're not going to delegate "check out what can be done to increase
transparency within the ftpmaster team without scaring away current
ftpmasters".
And that's the kind of problems that many people would like to have
tackled. And that's the kind of problem where you need to discuss with
other interested DD to avoid doing bad mistakes.
> Look at the kernel team, Linus delegated various bits for others to
> control because he could not handle doing it all.
The tasks of the DPL are not about coding and reviewing code. That can be
easily delegated once you trained people and trust them.
> So why not have a DPL todo list that is public and
> can be worked on by him/her and can have folks look at it like a RFH.
Each DPL provided a platform: it ought to be his TODO list because he's
elected on that basis. The platform are public, I've yet to see someone
who worked on a project of a DPL.
The point is precisely this: we elect a DPL to do things that we're not
ready to ourselves and/or to do things that need DPL power (at least in our
opinion).
> If the DPL can do it, great. If he/she can deligate it, fine. If not, let
> the list be there so that others can step-up and say "I'll do the DPL's
> bidding".
If life was so simple ... :-)
Another remark: improving internal workings of the project requires a great
deal of energy, of patience and voluntarism. It's quite daunting for
someone alone... when you're campaigning, you're full of energy that makes
you believe you will be up to the task. Once it's over, the general
interest on those questions fall down and it's very difficult to continue
on that track.
I believe that with a team, we can overcome this aspect because even if
6 people are behaving like that, it's quite likely that 1 or 2 will keep
their motivation. And you only need one motivated people to go forward.
I've experienced that myself at numerous times: there are cases where alone
I would be doing nothing but when others are working on it, I feel the
need to give a hand and give my opinion and help them go forward.
Cheers,
--
Raphaël Hertzog
Premier livre français sur Debian GNU/Linux :
http://www.ouaza.com/livre/admin-debian/
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