Re: [Ksummit-2007-discuss] Re: Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board Elections

Matt Mackall
2007-08-23T01:18:49Z

On Wed, Aug 22, 2007 at 06:42:09PM -0600, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 22, 2007 at 07:37:48PM -0500, Matt Mackall wrote:
> > On Wed, Aug 22, 2007 at 06:26:18PM -0600, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> > > On Wed, Aug 22, 2007 at 11:44:00PM +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> > > > On Wed, Aug 22, 2007 at 10:22:59AM -0500, James Bottomley wrote:
> > > > > The elections for five of the ten members of the Linux Foundation
> > > > > Technical Advisory Board[TAB] are held every year, currently the
> > > > > election will be at the 2007 Kernel Summit in a BOF session.
> > > >
> > > > The reasons for this may be obvious with more understanding of how the
> > > > TAB came into existence, but given that the Linux Foundation isn't
> > > > limited to kernel development (see the desktop architects stuff, for
> > > > instance) it seems a bit odd for it to have a technical board that's
> > > > determined at a kernel-only event.
> > >
> > > I was under the impression that the TAB elections were being held at
> > > Kernel Summit purely as a stop-gap; that this wasn't to be a regular
> > > event.
> >
> > And we're still looking for a better solution. Patches welcome.
>
> Software in the Public Interest has a system you can steal ...

Unfortunately, it's fairly burdensome:

Any contributing member of SPI is eligible to vote.

...

Contributing memberships are open to persons and organizations who
have made significant contributions to the free software community,
as determined by the membership committee.

The membership committee and its charter will make reasonable and
fair procedures for these determinations, including for acquiring
necessary information such as lists of projects a prospective member
has participated in or testimonials, and for regularly reviewing the
status of contributing members.

While I think that's laudable, we definitely don't have the resources
for that, as everyone on the TAB already has a full workload. And it
hardly seems worth the trouble for a once-a-year election.

--
Mathematics is the supreme nostalgia of our time.