[GRASS-PSC] [GRASS-dev] Comment regarding PSC election

Mon Jul 25 14:42:56 PDT 2016

I add that there is probably no perfect solution to this question. There is no intent to be exclusive. But tt is not always easy to ID who is actively contributing. For example, compiling and disseminating GRASS binaries is an essential contribution to the project, but anyone maintaining binaries does not necessarily need write access to the SVN, even though they might have such access. So we should probably continue to evolve how we identify contributors as the project itself evolves. However, changing policies in the midst of an ongoing election can cause confusion and possibly even more hard feelings that otherwise. The main thing is for you not to feel badly about managing this first time election. An important principle is that we will begin to have regular elections to allow more participation and the ability to evolve how we manage this. 

Michael
____________________
C. Michael Barton
Director, Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity 
Professor of Anthropology, School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Head, Graduate Faculty in Complex Adaptive Systems Science
Arizona State University

voice:  480-965-6262 (SHESC), 480-965-8130/727-9746 (CSDC)
fax: 480-965-7671 (SHESC),  480-727-0709 (CSDC)
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton, http://csdc.asu.edu

> On Jul 25, 2016, at 2:33 PM, Michael Barton <Michael.Barton at asu.edu> wrote:
> 
> My perspective is that active contributors to the project should vote. How to define them is a more complicated issue and one of the things that prompted the long email chain in the PCS IIRC. 
> 
> Michael
> ____________________
> C. Michael Barton
> Director, Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity 
> Professor of Anthropology, School of Human Evolution & Social Change
> Head, Graduate Faculty in Complex Adaptive Systems Science
> Arizona State University
> 
> voice:  480-965-6262 (SHESC), 480-965-8130/727-9746 (CSDC)
> fax: 480-965-7671 (SHESC),  480-727-0709 (CSDC)
> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton, http://csdc.asu.edu
> 
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>> On Jul 25, 2016, at 2:03 PM, Nikos Alexandris <nik at nikosalexandris.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Dear Michael,
>> 
>> thank you for this valuable insight, as it clearly comes out of great
>> experience.
>> 
>> 
>> Would we, however, consider active community members who use, work and
>> contribute time and expertise to document and demonstrate (in the Wiki
>> and elsewhere) GRASS-GIS, as project contributors?
>> 
>> In the case of Veronica Andreo, I think no one disagrees that her work
>> and content contribution (in the Wiki for example) are useful and
>> exceptionally paradigmatic.  And there are certainly many more active
>> members.
>> 
>> In which case, wouldn't it be fair for such members to be eligible to vote?
>> 
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>> In any case, it is not my intention to reactively cause yet another long
>> discussion.  If there are no further discussions on this, especially from PSC
>> members, the process will carry on As Is.
>> 
>> 
>> If there are, however notions from current PSC members, for favouring,
>> somehow, Veronica Andreo's view, maybe we can at least offer option "ii"
>> (please, see my response to Veronica Andreo's e-mail), that is offer
>> voting right to community members who ask for it?  It implies that such
>> members are active.  Why else should someone ask for voting anyway?
>> 
>> Thank you, Nikos
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> * Michael Barton <Michael.Barton at asu.edu> [2016-07-25 19:45:04 +0000]:
>> 
>>> I am concerned that there is a misunderstanding of how the project operates and what the PSC does here. In brief, it oversees the "project"--that is, the development and distribution of GRASS software. This project involves a community of developers who contribute time and expertise to create, maintain, and distribute GRASS software. Anyone can join this community, but it is not the same as the much larger group of people who use the software without contributing to the project. The PSC doesn't really have oversight over this much larger user community. I would be equally concerned if all the users of Apache software could decide on who should oversee the Apache project. My 2 cents.
>>> 
>>> Michael
>>> ____________________
>>> C. Michael Barton
>>> Director, Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
>>> Professor of Anthropology, School of Human Evolution & Social Change
>>> Head, Graduate Faculty in Complex Adaptive Systems Science
>>> Arizona State University
>>> 
>>> voice:  480-965-6262 (SHESC), 480-965-8130/727-9746 (CSDC)
>>> fax: 480-965-7671 (SHESC),  480-727-0709 (CSDC)
>>> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton, http://csdc.asu.edu
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jul 25, 2016, at 10:53 AM, Markus Neteler <neteler at osgeo.org<mailto:neteler at osgeo.org>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> FYI!
>>> 
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: "Veronica Andreo" <veroandreo at gmail.com<mailto:veroandreo at gmail.com>>
>>> Date: Jul 25, 2016 7:26 PM
>>> Subject: [GRASS-dev] Comment regarding PSC election
>>> To: "grass-user" <grass-user at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:grass-user at lists.osgeo.org>>, "grass-dev" <grass-dev at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:grass-dev at lists.osgeo.org>>
>>> Cc:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Hello everyone,
>>> 
>>> I just wanted to make a comment regarding the ongoing PSC election.
>>> 
>>> I got to know how the whole process works only the past days and I must say I'm rather disappointed. I was happy to see that also users could vote as Nikos stated in his first email, but then that info was rectified. I read the emails of grass-psc discussing the matter and also the wiki.
>>> 
>>> This is my personal opinion and no more than that, but I just think it is a bit unfair that for not having svn writing access I'm not able to vote. I don't understand how, as user, I'm entitled to nominate a person for PSC, but then, I cannot vote. I mean, there are several people with writing access that have remained inactive for a long time (no contributions to svn, no answering emails, no commenting on tickets or whatsoever), and IMHO, while not a developer, I've been pretty active the past 2-3 years. This is the first time I don't see/feel the community spirit that I've always praised GRASS for and that was one of the main reasons why I involved myself in it and spread the love for the project everywhere I went... and that's sad from my point of view.
>>> 
>>> Anyway, sorry to bother with this (maybe) biased opinion/feeling, I just needed to express it. Perhaps in the future, voting could be optional for users, dunno...
>>> 
>>> Thanks so much to all of you for making GRASS GIS the great software it is :)
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> Vero
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