Candidate Q&A - List of Questions

[Steaphan Greene]

On 02/16/2011 06:58 AM, Daniel Stone wrote:
>>  3) As stated in the X.org Foundation bylaws, only a maximum of 2 of the 8 board
>>     seats can be taken by employees of the same company. In the past there was a
>>     situation where there were more than two of the same company on the board,
>>     after some board member changed affiliation. What is your opinion about
>>     this, how would you prefer to resolve such a situation?
> 
> As a follow-up, do you still think this restriction is relevant, and
> would you change/remove it in any way?

The below is all IMHO, of course:

If you're asking the members in general, and not just the candidates, I
would say it is absolutely relevant.

First, this rule is for all time, not just now.  Even if it is not
relevant now, it's easy to see how it could become a problem critical in
some future situation.

Second, this rule is even more about appearance than effect.  Imagine
the amount of cooperation a company would give if the board became
dominated by their primary competitor.  Credibility of neutrality is
key, even (especially?) among those who don't know anything about how
this group actually functions.

This is one of those things that could cause this group to fail if it's
not kept and respected.  Even the above, neutral, statement has caused
the foreseeable (over)reactions.


Speaking of over-reactions.  The personal attacks that have just hit
this list don't belong here.  Plain text leaves a great deal of tone up
to the reader, and posting these to a whole group automatically loads
them in a negative context.  Such messages usually only result in the
various misunderstanders continually trying to get in the final word, as
they feel they are forced to defend themselves against public attacks,
perceived or otherwise.

I'm not saying this is not a legitimate argument.  I am just saying this
isn't the place, or the way, to have it.  The only appropriate on-list
response to any of these mails (and to be clear, I am talking about all
sides who have chimed in, not any particular one) is no reply at all.


P.S. I realize nobody here probably knows who I am.  I've been a voting
member since XFree86 imploded, but haven't found the opportunity to
contribute since GATOS was completed (yeah, that was a while back).  I
only wish I could contribute more than just these opinions.

-- 
Steaphan Greene <sgreene at cs.binghamton.edu>
Lecturer, Computer Science, Binghamton University
GPG public key: http://www.cs.binghamton.edu/~sgreene/gpg.key.txt