As I write about governance, I would love to hear your stories about the following:
An example of how a governance body has engaged really well with its community.
An example of how a governance body has inspired a community.
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
[…] Bacon asked on the Art of Community blog for successful governance stories, and while I’m happy to comment on the blog, now that I’ve taken the time to write some […]
[…] asked on the AOC blog for successful governance stories, and while I’m happy to comment on the blog, now that I’ve taken the time to write some […]
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My wife and I belong to a running group and one of the problems is there is no SABDFL in the running group. This leads to meetings and discussions and meetings about meetings about planing events and well you get the picture. If there was one SABDFL in the group a lot would change and process would happen better. We would have events, our website would get updated, etc.
I think the problem with a lot of OSS communities is there is no SBDFL. There is no one who can claim the buck stops here and I think that is where Mark has done a great job. He has the ultimate say in things but very rarely uses that vote. And when he does vote with the SABDFL card you know it is an important issue and one that must be dealt with.
Jonathan
Care to expound on what the acronym SABDFL for us who aren’t completely ignorant to search an acronym?
Thanks!
Supreme and Benevelot Dictator for Life. Its the title Mark Shutterworth refers to him self as
Wasn’t it Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator For Live?
Instead of a SABDFL, you could form an anarco-sydicalist commune and take it in turns to be a sort of executive officer for the week. All the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two thirds majority in the case of…
King Arthur: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
Maybe this is obvious, but US President Obama has arguably been a source of inspiration around the world. But you don’t need to touch the current political climate, JFK is another good example of a government leader inspiring the public.
It doesn’t always get the best credit, but the Eclipse Foundation is a great example of a governance system that suits it’s community quite well. In the case of Eclipse, many Free-softwareites discount it because it has such heavy commercial participation, but for the community, it does a great job of meeting the needs of the commercial interests and still recognizing the needs of the individual developers who make stuff happen. You can see a lot of this at the upcoming EclipseCon conference, which you may want to make a stop by, it’s in the bay area.