[Numpy-discussion] Governance model request

[Chris Barker]

On Sun, Sep 20, 2015 at 11:20 AM, Travis Oliphant <travis at continuum.io>
wrote:

> After long conversations at BIDS this weekend and after reading the entire
> governance document,  I realized that the steering council is very large
>
How large are we talking? I think there were 8 people named -- and I'm not
sure all 8 want to do it. But 5 or seems like a fine number -- I wonder if
defining the number is a good idea.

> A one year time frame is pretty short on the context of a two decades old
> project
>
I see:

"""
who have produced contributions that are substantial in
quality and quantity, and sustained over at least one year
"""

that could be longer, but it looks like it DOESN'T mean "have contributed
within the last year" -- so we could certainly, at this point, have a lot
of folks that have been around a long time that could qualify. A certain
guy named Travis come to mind...

and I believe the current council has too few people who have been around
> the community long enough to help unstuck difficult situations if that were
> necessary.
>
That's actually a bad sign right there -- the suggested group are the folks
that have actually been contributing lately -- too bad that apparently
isn't anyone that has been around a long time :-(

 also see:
"""
 This will
include but is not limited to code, code review, infrastructure work,
mailing list and chat participation, community help/building,
education and outreach, design work, etc.
"""

so it's not only people doing the actual coding ( A really  small number
:-( )

But I note that the the suggestion to "seed the  council" with "everyone
who has reviewed/merged a pull request since Jan 1, 2014" - I'm not sure
that gives us as diverse a council as we'd like -- but it is only the
seed...
>
> 1 - define a BDFL for the council.
>
Well, that would make a number of things easier -- but I think there was a
consensus that there simply was no obvious candidate -- and if the
candidate is not obvious, then they can't really be a BDFL.

> 2 - limit the council to 3 people.  I would nominate chuck, nathaniel, and
> pauli.
>
Good group -- but maybe 3 a bit too small.

> 3 - add me as a permanent member of the steering council.
>
I'd love to see you on the council, and there is no question of your
qualifications -- but I don't think anyone should be anymore permanent than
any other. According to the docs so far, the only thing anyone needs to do
to remain on the council is stay active -- and not piss everyone off so
much as to get a consensus from everyone else that you need to be kicked
off.

And the end of this -- I think the big question still at hand is how big
the council should be.

My experience with consensus suggests that it not be very big :-)

-Chris


-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

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