Does Debian need a Social Committee? [LWN.net]

Does Debian need a Social Committee?

Posted Feb 8, 2007 9:14 UTC (Thu) by HalloBaum (subscriber, #14304)
Parent article: Does Debian need a Social Committee?

While Debain already *HAS* a history on handling social
issues it should realy be said that
Debian is a partnership of convinience.

The goal is - like on every such other project - clearly
defined an the responsibilities are clear. If you
focus on social liabilities you already have lost.
Why? It's like in a company. You have commited to
the above goals and responsibilities and you are working
with others because of these responsibilities, and not because
you like the people you are working with.
There is always someone you don't like.(And this might
even change over time)

You are not working because group dynamics but in spite of them.

So yes. There should be someone telling the borderline.
Not to settle a dispute, but to tell two parties, when they
are leaving their commitment out of sight. After this they
have to settle the dispute on their own and not in or around
the project. Otherwise Debian will get realy unproductive,
only handling social issues, losing it's goals.

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Does Debian need a Social Committee?

Posted Feb 8, 2007 9:19 UTC (Thu) by HalloBaum (subscriber, #14304) [Link]

The whole in a sentence:
On a multinational project it's hard to solve social issues but it's easy to tell which issues are not goal-centric ones.

Does Debian need a Social Committee?

Posted Feb 8, 2007 17:53 UTC (Thu) by jschrod (subscriber, #1646) [Link]

[About Debian:] You are not working because group dynamics but in spite of them.

If this is true, it is a sad statement about Debian.

I'm at home in the TeX community, and here many of our active members work because of its group dynamics, not in spite of it. Quite a few of them are active even though they don't use TeX much themselves. They do so because they found friends here. So, group dynamics are actually a very good way to capture activity -- if they are the right ones, and not flame wars.

Joachim

Does Debian need a Social Committee?

Posted Feb 8, 2007 18:07 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

The TeX community is one of the most pleasantly collegial it's ever been my pleasure to lurk around. If only everyone could be like this.