Revising OpenWrt Rules

[Sam Kuper]

I'm just a sometime OpenWRT user, so weigh this accordingly...


On Tue, Sep 15, 2020 at 08:01:36PM -0400, Rich Brown wrote:
> Assorted stuff that I don't think is controversial...
> 
> - All decisions need to be made public

Can I propose something stronger:

    All decisions need to be made *in* public.

I.e. in a format that ensures anyone (with reasonable Internet access)
can see or hear both:

- How the decision *is* being made (at the time it is being made).  E.g.
  via a publicly-readable mailing list or publicly-listenable/watchable
  conference call.[1]

- How the decision *was* made (after the fact).  E.g. through
  publicly-accessible archives of project mailing lists or conference
  calls.



This would mean that if some OpenWRT decisionmakers were to discuss an
upcoming decision in a private setting (over coffee at a conference, or
in a private email conversation, or whatever), then they would not be
able to ratify the decision in that discussion.  They would need to
subsequently propose the decision in the relevant public forum (e.g. a
publicly-accessible OpenWRT mailing list) for scrutiny and ratification.


AFAICT, this is roughly how Debian works.  See e.g. point 5 of
https://www.debian.org/code_of_conduct and also section 4.2(5) of
https://www.debian.org/devel/constitution .  The latter says:
    
    Proposals, sponsors, amendments, calls for votes and other formal
    actions are made by announcement on a publicly-readable electronic
    mailing list designated by the Project Leader's Delegate(s); any
    Developer may post there.


Best regards,

Sam


[1] Conference call audio is not accesible to deaf people, so a
transcript would need to be made (ideally in real-time) lest OpenWRT be
discriminatory.  Mailing lists avoid this trouble.


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