Re: [Tech-board-discuss] Re: Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board Elections

[James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@HansenPartnership.com>]

On Wed, 2007-08-22 at 19:45 -0700, James Morris wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Aug 2007, Theodore Tso wrote:
> 
> > community.  This was especially true the first year before the TAB was
> > elected; but even after we held an election at last year's KS, I think
> > it's fair to say that while we try to advise the OSDL and now the LF
> > with what the community would like, the only person that we can really
> > represent is ourselves.   
> 
> Perhaps I'm missing something, but this seems a little odd.
> 
> If I understand correctly: with the stated goal of addressing cronyism, a 
> mechanism is implemented where only people who are selected by a committee 
> or who pay are able to vote, in an election for candidates who only 
> represent themselves, and where the vast majority of the community is 
> excluded from voting.

I don't think we claimed we have the perfect system.  However, the
failure of anyone on this list to come up with a better one seems to
speak volumes about the difficulty of the problem.  If you have a
proposal, please make it ... otherwise simply griping about the current
system isn't going to change anything.

> The TAB is described on the LF site as:
> 
>  "The Technical Advisory Board (TAB) provides the Linux kernel community a 
>   direct voice into The Linux Foundation's activities..."
> 
> which certainly suggests to me a representative role on behalf of the 
> community.

Then you're misconstruing the interactions.  A representational role
would imply the ability to speak for the community and make promises on
its behalf.  That, as Ted has already said, can't happen.  Instead, the
value to the LF is that the TAB contains people experienced in community
interactions who can act as a sounding board for what may (or may not)
be well received.

James