[IAEP] [SLOBS] PATCH: Remove Decision Panels from our Governance document

[Holt]

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:
> On 05/08/2011 05:56 PM, Bernie Innocenti wrote:
>> 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.
> 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
>
>
>
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