<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> Excellent analysis Ben: Community Expertise is one of our strongest assets (eg. Gary Martin on visual design, eg. Caryl Bigenho on real-world teaching dynamics, etc). A Decision Panel every few years that honors such Community Thought Leaders's work & contributions without forcing them into refenda/electioneering -- while educating all of us around a profoundly divisive issue -- is a great thing. Decision Panels serve as wisening checks+balances against executive drift and gung-ho populism. Not that i would mind if DP recommendations were ratified by referendum and/or SLOBS :) On 5/15/2011 11:02 AM, Benjamin M. Schwartz wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:4DCFEB0B.9010002@fas.harvard.edu" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">On 05/08/2011 05:56 PM, Bernie Innocenti wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">As part of my attempt to simplify bureaucracy within Sugar Labs, I felt that Decision Panels were a redundant mechanism to find consensus within the community. The existing paragraph on Referenda offers a better way to make democratic decisions. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> In my view, the Decision Panel mechanism is not redundant with a referendum. It is meant as a decision-making mechanism of last resort, in order to resolve otherwise irreconcilable divisions within the community. It serves several purposes, including some that it serves even when it is not used. Indeed, ideally it would never be invoked, and it should be used only when the alternative is a hostile fork or deadlock. Its purposes are: 1. To deter power-hungry people from joining the Oversight Board, by stating explicitly that they are not empowered to decide controversial issues. 2. To make good decisions by ensuring that decisions are made by experts. An ideal Decision Panel should be composed of people who have deep direct knowledge of the problem at hand. For topics requiring detailed subject knowledge, the majority of the Sugar community may lack appropriate experience, and as such may reach the wrong conclusion. For example, a user interface question might appropriately be decided by a panel containing an experienced user interface developer, a scholar of human-computer interaction, and an educator who has long experience observing how students actually interact with Sugar. 3. Creating consensus, in order to avoid division of the Sugar community. Decision Panels are required to produce a clear written argument explaining their decision. An ideal panel should be composed of impartial people with expertise in the field. We may therefore hope that their arguments will serve to sway the opinions of community members who are open to the views of others. In my view, the "white paper" produced by a Decision Panel may produce consensus in a way that a public referendum will not. In summary: the purpose of the mechanism is to enrich the discourse of Sugar Labs by inviting help on the thorniest of issues. If you don't see a need for such a panel, then don't make one! --Ben </pre> <pre wrap=""> <fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset> _______________________________________________ SLOBs mailing list <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:SLOBs@lists.sugarlabs.org">SLOBs@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/slobs">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/slobs</a> </pre> </blockquote> <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- Help kids everywhere map their world, at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://olpcMAP.net">http://olpcMAP.net</a> !</pre> </body> </html>