[Incubator] [rasdaman-users] Re: Rasdaman as a 'Benevolent dictatorship' Project: was [rasdaman-dev] patch quality

[Beccati, Alan]

Since the topic is OSGeo incubaton I would not give too much to the almighty kernel and his leader, they do not want graduation and are free to follow whatever model they prefer which is also the case for JTS (as cited by Jody[1]). From my point of view I see there is a clear request from OSGeo side to have an open "democratic" governance (among the many others that we already fulfilled as a community); of course I agree that a PMB, and an high bus factor, are distinct advantages for the resilience of a project to unforeseen adverse events such as dropped support from a contributing entity but this should not be the only driving factor.

The most relevant case I see from the ones cited is indeed postGIS, a graduated project: from what Susanne highlighted, gives me the impression of being probably an evident case of PSC creation and enhanced community support achieved thanks to the OSGeo incubation. A joint effort, which likely gave Refractions developers more time and freedom to focus on developing new features, rather than providing basic support and fixing minor documentation issues or simple bugs that well-built communities can provide. Since this is my speculative opinion I'd pretty much would like to have their (refraction) opinion about how this worked out for their company (which I understand to be the original project founder). In my opinion it is important to consider such aspects, since open source has to ensure companies with talent can thrive participating in it and embracing such open decision making processes. Is there a success story or any other feedback from them available for consideration?

Let me also point out that a PSC for rasdaman (as is already the case for other mentioned projects) would be most likely composed of members from the rasdaman company and Jacobs University since, from my perspective, these two are by far the most active contributors, having the large majority of effort invested on the community project. Not many others I see having a chance to get into decision making, based on meritocracy (contributed effort). This of course might change with community (and active contribution) growth. 

As Bruce correctly noted there has already been a considerable shift towards openness both with respect to technical discussion (core foundation of decision making in open source) and planning, which I consider in part to be an OSGeo-driven success for our project and an inlet for getting active participation. I look forward to see how this evolves for our community and remark that I consider a very important success factor for our community project to be part of the OSGeo interconnected projects ecosystem by graduating That is however only one aspect of successful open source projects as the aforementioned JTS case remarks.

Alan

[1] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/incubator/2013-July/002215.html


-----Original Message-----
From: rasdaman-users at googlegroups.com [mailto:rasdaman-users at googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Dimitar Misev
Sent: 02 August 2013 11:09
To: rasdaman-users at googlegroups.com
Cc: Susanne Ebrecht; rasdaman-dev at googlegroups.com; Baumann, Peter; Bruce Bannerman; incubator at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [rasdaman-users] Re: [Incubator] Rasdaman as a 'Benevolent dictatorship' Project: was [rasdaman-dev] patch quality

Let me further point to the Linux Kernel and Linus Torvalds as a perfectly good example. Below is an excerpt from [1]:

"Linus is the benevolent dictator of the Linux project. He didn't coin the expression himself; it comes from Eric Raymond's essay 'The Cathedral and the Bazaar', in which the author studies the various organizational forms of Open Source projects. Although the dictatorship model is not the only way Open Source projects are run, it is by far the most common and the least formal. Guido van Rossum, the creator of the programming language Python, is known publicly in Python circles as BDFL - Benevolent Dictator for Life. Apparently Python programmers have no intention of ever letting poor Guido enjoy a well-earned retirement.
A benevolent dictator is the leader of a project and the person who alone has all the power to make decisions.17 Often this authority is a natural consequence of the leader being the instigator of the project, as Linus is in the case of Linux.
For those of us living in Western democracies, talk of dictatorship could sound suspicious. Although the directness of a dictatorship is sure to be cost-effective and helps to create a light organizational structure, history has taught us something about the problems inherent in such a system. Alas, few monarchs or dictators have ever been known for their benevolence. So, despite the cost, inefficiency and frustration caused by the negotiations, compromises and voting in a democracy, we have learnt the lessons of history and chosen to live under a democratic system of government. Linus Torvalds may score well above average for benevolence, but can we really trust that his successor - when that day comes - isn't a total disaster?
The answer is yes, because it isn't as if Linus is the leader of Linux by chance and it's just a lucky fluke that he is benevolent. Actually, it's quite the other way around: he's the leader only - and I repeat - only because he's as smart as he is."

1. Henrik Ingo. Open Life: The Philosophy of Open Source. Ingram, 2005. 
42-45. http://openlife.cc/files/OpenLife-aa.pdf


On 08/02/2013 10:46 AM, Susanne Ebrecht wrote:
> Am 01.08.2013 um 16:10 schrieb Even Rouault<even.rouault at mines-paris.org>:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I couldn't resist to interfere into this topic. To my opinion, most 
>> OSGeo projects current operate under the "Benevolent Dictatorship" 
>> model, except that they call it, in a more political correct fashion, 
>> a "Project Steering/Management Committee" and it is made of several 
>> individuals, with equal rights and known procedures. And, in case of 
>> hard disputes, there is an individual who is more equal to others, 
>> and he's called the dictator... ahem no, the "Chair"...
>
> Hello,
>
> that is also my opinion.
> Looking to our laws it is almost impossible not to be a benevolent dictatorship.
> Usually, you need a legal entity and every legal entity needs a board 
> of decision taking authorities.
>
> Before I will point out examples from other project I want to point out something about rasdaman.
>
> Look to http://rasdaman.org
>
> How long do you need to find a link to mailing lists?
> How long do you need to find a link "how to report a bug"?
> How long do you need to find a link "how to contribute?"
>
> It is all on the right side of the starting page.
>
> When I came home and told my partner Hartmut about rasdaman he wanted to know more.
> He downloaded it. He found some stuff that didn't work like expected. He just fixed it and send a patch.
> Nobody from rasdaman team knew that Hartmut is my partner.
> A few days later Hartmut came to me. He was very proud. And he pointed out: "Wow! my patch its committed. it was committed from a guy starting with A and his last name sounds Italian.
>
> He was proud because the rasdaman team took care. Both of us already made experiences with some other open source projects that nobody will take care of you - neither when you report a single bug nor when you contribute code.
>
> Enough fame on Rasdaman - look into other Open Source projects:
>
>
> 1. POSTGIS
>
> Just looking to http://postgis.org
>
> Do you see a link on the page how to contribute?
> Do you see where to find community support?
>
> Click the support button ...
> You will get to refraction.net (why the hell is it .net and not .com?) 
> Placed as eye cacher on the page you will find that you should pay USD 
> 5000 before you will get an answer to a single question.
> Ok, click the back button of your browser.
> Click Documentation
> Now you get forwarded to postgis.net
> The Domain postgis.net not even belongs to the PostGIS project. It is registered from OSGeo.
> Also the community mailing list is managed from OSGeo.
> That looks like Refraction not has any interests in any community 
> action. If OSGeo would not manage the community communication there just wouldn't be community communication.
> Neither free support nor something else.
>
> Did one of you ever try to send a patch to PostGIS? Did you get an 
> answer? Did you got a contributor agreement? Did somebody took care at all?
> On the PgCon (PostgreSQL Conference) in Ottawa I got aware from more 
> guys who send a patch to PostGIS and never got an answer. Not even a simple and polite Thanks!.
>
> Additionally, within the first 5 minutes searching postgis.org and 
> .net web-pages I can't find where to send bug reports.
>
> Also interesting is that the Project Steering Committee members all are Refraction employees.
>
> More interesting is - why is PostGIS under GPL? PostgreSQL is under BSD.
>
> Am I allowed to use PostGIS in my closed source software project without paying license fees?
> I couldn't find the answer.
>
> In any case - refraction also is a benevolent dictatorship.
>
> 2. OpenStreetMap
>
> The European database law says that it isn't allowed to have a shared copyright.
> That is why it was mandatory for OSM to found the OpenStreetMap Foundation.
> The decision taking authority of OSM is the OpenStreetMap Foundation.
> But - that is just true for the data.
> The decision taking authority of the OSM web pages are the web page administrators.
> All tools and code around OSM are separate projects and it is up to the project developers.
>
> 3. KDE
> They have a legal entity and a board of directors
>
> 4. Ubuntu
> Let me thing ... there is Mark Shuttleworth ... Mark Shuttleworth  ... and Mark Shuttleworth.
>
> 5. Open Source projects with companies behind
>
> At all open source projects from companies either the top management 
> has the decision taking authority or the stockholders (if venture capital is behind).
>
> Who followed the MySQL history knows how much influence stockholders 
> can have on a project. Not nice at all.
>
> 6. PostgreSQL
> PostgreSQL isn't law save at all. There is no legal entity for PostgreSQL.
> They live with the motto  "as long as nobody complains no court will care"
> Anyway - even PostgreSQL has a board. It is called core team and today it has 6 members.
> They are the decision taking authority.
>
> Regards,
>
> Susanne
>

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