[openbeos] Re: Openness

  • From: Thom Holwerda <slakje@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 14:02:02 +0200


On May 13, 2007, at 2:32 AM, Jorge G. Mare (a.k.a. Koki) wrote:

You have to look at when does openness stop being functional, and does it become a roadblock? Sometimes, it's better NOT to be open about things or decisions, simply because that same openness hinders the actual goal: to make a decision.

In the same vain, you also have to recognize when your closeness hinders your ability to grow your project, which I think is what has been happening to Haiku. There are ways to keep the focus and still be more transparent. I think that's what the community is looking for.

That's up for those who do the most work (see my previous email) to decide. If they feel their current way of doing things suffices, and that more openness would hinder them, then so be it. They have proven to be committed to Haiku, so I'm sure they will do the right thing. So far, it seems to me as if things are going fairly smoothly.

I guess I just don't see how any more openness would have a positive factor on the process; in fact, I think it will only hinder it.

OSNews is a voluntary project, and everybody can join in/ participate, but that does NOT mean it belongs to our readers. OSNews is owned by those who spend the most time working on it. The same applies to Haiku. And if that group of people who spend the most time working on it believe being more open than they are now hinders the decision making process, I can do nothing but trust them. It is their prerogative.

Well, in reality, Haiku belongs to Haiku Inc.; but the code is there for anyone to grab, which makes it quite irrelevant who it belongs to. But more importantly, if you are a volunteer-based project and you want to grow your volunteer base, a "Haiku belongs to XXX so they will do as they please" message, which is a form a elitism, is probably not going to inspire a lot of people to help you out.

It's not elitism, it's common sense. Adam, Eugenia, and I do 99.9% of all the work needed to properly run OSNews, and hence OSNews is *our* project, and *we* get to decide the course of action. If a new committed editor comes along (Eugenia and I have been the only ones committed enough to stay longer than a few months), he/she will earn our trust, and as time passes by, his opinion will be taken more seriously. Same with Haiku.

I don't see how that is elitism. Elitism has to do with a certain class of people having the power irrelevant of their performance or contributions. I don't see that here; I'm sure that if I could actually code, and I would contribute majorly to the Haiku project, I would get more and more say in Haiku's direction as time progresses. That certainly does not fit the header of 'elitism'.

Volunteers who give their time and skills to a project find motivation in a number of intangibles, affinity of goals and a sense of community/participation being two very important ones. I think the point being made in this thread is simple: that Haiku would benefit from becoming more transparent as a means to inspire motivation among potential contributors.

In my country, The Netherlands, we held a referendum about ratifying the EU Constitution. Politicians thought that by allowing the public to decide on this matter would increase the awareness among people of what the EU is and does. They thought the people would understand how this new Const. would keep the EU manageable.

It didn't. People did not vote for or against the merits of the Const. They voted against the current government, against the Euro, that sort of stuff. I doubt even 10% knew what the constitution was actually about. An overwhelming 60+% voted 'no'.

This is what could happen to Haiku too. You don't want mere mortals like me having a say in development decisions, because I know fcuk all about programming. Decisions like that should be made by the people who know their stuff.

I have been looking at other projects for hints, and I like what the Gnome Foundation states in its charter, and I quote:

I don't think you want to put GNOME on a pedestal. In case you haven't noticed, GNOME is dead in the water when it comes to its future. There is no leader, nobody who makes decisions. As a clear example: it took the GNOME guys 2 (two!) years to add a small, minor, user-invisible but often requested feature, because the discussion just kept going on and on and on and on and on and... Well, you get the idea. In the end, it was Havoc Pennington himself who get fed up with it, and he just made his own personal patch in 5 minutes, despite the indecision. So, again, openness can be a real roadblock.

Whether to be open about certain matters should be decided upon by those who contribute most to the Haiku project. That's not elitism, it's common sense.


Thom Holwerda
---
Managing editor at http://www.osnews.com

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