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

[Bruce Bannerman]

Peter,

This is the first that I've seen Rasdaman declared as operating under a
'Benevolent Dictatorship' model. I'm not sure what discussion has gone into
this declaration. I have certainly not seen any discussion on the public
Rasdaman lists.

This declaration has implications for Rasdaman continuing as an OSGeo
Project in incubation.

I suggest that the Rasdaman Community, pause and consider how to move
forward as an open source project.


Prior to discussing this further in this email, I'd like to make two
observations as the OSGeo Mentor for the Rasdaman Community:

- I am pleased to see how the Rasdaman Community is starting to work
together and develop some real momentum as an open source project. There
has been a marked increase in the pace of the work that is occurring within
the community now when compared to where we were several years ago. The
community is starting to bed down some good code development and release
management processes that bode well for the future of the Project.

- I am also pleased to see key members of the community take an active
leadership role in developing appropriate open spatial standards. You are
being very effective in this work. The spatial community as a whole benefit
from your tenacity.


The issue that we face is that of the Rasdaman Project operating as a
'Benevolent Dictatorship'.

This is at odds with what OSGeo is trying to achieve through the Incubation
process that Rasdaman requested to undertake and was accepted into, in good
faith.

You may recall one of the factors that is considered for OSGeo Graduation
[1]:

"*The project has demonstrated ...[an] active and healthy community:**
**...**
**Long term viability of the project is demonstrated by showing
participation and direction from multiple developers, who come from
multiple organisations.**
**Eg. The project is resilient enough to sustain loss of a developer or
supporting organisation, often referred to as having a high bus factor.
Decisions are made openly instead of behind closed doors, which empowers
all developers to take ownership of the project and facilitates spreading
of knowledge between current and future team members.*"


In my comments in my last report to the OSGeo Incubation Committee [2], I
noted a number of issues that reflected an apparent lack of open process
about how any community member can participate, including in the decision
making process of the project, and through effort, commitment and merit can
earn a position of trust as a community leader.

We are trying to establish a robust community that can survive the
departure of key people and still continue and thrive.


With the 'benevolent dictatorship' declaration, I can see that we have an
impasse that needs to be addressed.

I can accept that during the early stages of the formation of a community
that strong leadership from a few key people is desirable to get momentum
going.

However, as a project progresses, other community members also develop a
good understanding of the technology and potential future directions. They
may also have strong skills to bring into a leadership role.

I believe that all community members should have the right to contribute on
merit. This includes in leadership roles. The best approach on how to deal
with a problem should be accepted, regardless of who originates it.

Where there is an impasse, it is useful to have a small group of people in
a steering committee type of role who can help defuse and resolve issues
within a clearly defined process.



As we stand now, with the 'benevolent dictatorship' approach, I cannot in
good faith recommend to the OSGeo Incubation Committee is ready to graduate
from the Incubation process.


We are not too far from completing the OSGeo Graduation process, if we can
resolve this issue and move forward with establishing robust and open
processes.


I recommend to the Rasdaman Community that you undertake a robust and
rigorous discussion on how you'd like to move forward as a community.

For consideration.

Bruce


[1] http://www.osgeo.org/incubator/process/project_graduation_checklist.html

[2] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/IncCom_Report22



On 30/07/13 4:53 PM, "Peter Baumann" <p.baumann at jacobs-university.de>
wrote:

>Bruce,
>
>as below:
>
>On 07/30/2013 02:53 AM, Bruce Bannerman wrote:
>> Peter,
>>
>> Out of interest:
>>
>> What process are we using to review and accept contributed patches?
>
>the patch manager page accepts submissions, which are reviewed by
>committers
>internally. Everyone can commit, upon doubts we discuss. Accepted or
>rejected,
>submitters get notified.
>
>>
>> Who undertakes this work?
>
>committers currently are:
>Peter Baumann
>Dimitar Misev
>Stephan Meissl
>
>>
>> Do we have a formal group of 'committers' to undertake this task?
>
>the above ones who get active depending on availability (we have a quite
>high
>submission frequency).
>
>>
>> How do community members become committers? What process is used?
>
>as Piero mentioned recently: we have the "benevolent dictatorship"
>variant in place.
>open and free discussion, and everybody for sure is heard, but I reserve
>the
>right for an ultimate decision.
>
>-Peter
>
>
>>
>> Bruce
>>
>>
>>
>> On 29/07/13 5:24 PM, "Peter Baumann" <p.baumann at jacobs-university.de>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear contributors,
>>>
>>> continuously you are greatly enhancing rasdaman. Please take care of
>>>the
>>> advice
>>> given on the patch submission page, in particular the code guide.
>>> Frequent issues which may lead to rejection of a patch:
>>> - no test provided for the fix/enhancement
>>> - code guide violated, most commonly: formatting, use of variables
>>> - fix addresses local problem reported, but obviously leaves open the
>>> "hole" for
>>> other, similar situations
>>>
>>> In particular fixes submitted against master must adhere to our
>>> guidelines.
>>>
>>> thanks for caring, and keep on doing good things,
>>> Peter
>>>
>>> PS: an announcement: having Susanne on board now (she comes from the
>>> PostgreSQL
>>> and MySQL communities) we are getting further insights into OS code
>>> management.
>>> Stay tuned, she has spotted our petascope error handling!
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dr. Peter Baumann
>>>   - Professor of Computer Science, Jacobs University Bremen
>>>     www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/pbaumann
>>>     mail: p.baumann at jacobs-university.de
>>>     tel: +49-421-200-3178, fax: +49-421-200-493178
>>>   - Executive Director, rasdaman GmbH Bremen (HRB 26793)
>>>     www.rasdaman.com, mail: baumann at rasdaman.com
>>>     tel: 0800-rasdaman, fax: 0800-rasdafax, mobile: +49-173-5837882
>>> "Si forte in alienas manus oberraverit hec peregrina epistola incertis
>>> ventis dimissa, sed Deo commendata, precamur ut ei reddatur cui soli
>>> destinata, nec preripiat quisquam non sibi parata." (mail disclaimer,
>>>AD
>>> 1083)
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
>>>Groups
>>> "rasdaman-dev" group.
>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
>>>an
>>> email to rasdaman-dev+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
>>> To post to this group, send email to rasdaman-dev at googlegroups.com.
>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rasdaman-dev.
>>>
>>>
>
>--
>Dr. Peter Baumann
>  - Professor of Computer Science, Jacobs University Bremen
>    www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/pbaumann
>    mail: p.baumann at jacobs-university.de
>    tel: +49-421-200-3178, fax: +49-421-200-493178
>  - Executive Director, rasdaman GmbH Bremen (HRB 26793)
>    www.rasdaman.com, mail: baumann at rasdaman.com
>    tel: 0800-rasdaman, fax: 0800-rasdafax, mobile: +49-173-5837882
>"Si forte in alienas manus oberraverit hec peregrina epistola incertis
>ventis dimissa, sed Deo commendata, precamur ut ei reddatur cui soli
>destinata, nec preripiat quisquam non sibi parata." (mail disclaimer, AD
>1083)
>
>
>--
>You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>"rasdaman-dev" group.
>To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
>email to rasdaman-dev+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
>To post to this group, send email to rasdaman-dev at googlegroups.com.
>Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rasdaman-dev.
>
>
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