Re: Democracy and organisation : let's make a revolution in the Debian way - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Jean-Michel,

> It seems clear that several teams are working without central point
management
> and contact:
<snip>
> - Marketing: MySQL sucks and has a team of marketing sending junk technical
> emails and writing false benchmarks. Who is in charge of marketing at
> PostgreSQL? Where can I find a list of PostgreSQL features?
<snip>
ome projects, like Debian, have a democratic organisation. The team leader is
> elected for a year. Why not settle a similar organization? This would help
> take decisions ... and not loose time on important issues.
>
> PostgreSQL is a software but it is also a community. If we believe in
> democracy, I suggest we should organize in a democratic way and elect a
> leader for a year.

Let me introduce myself.  In addition to being a contributor of supplimentary
documentation and the occasional spec to the PostgreSQL project, I am
volunteer marketing lead and the primary motivator for governance overhaul in
the OpenOffice.org project.

And frankly, I think you're way off base here.   We have leaders:  Tom, Bruce,
Jan, Stephan, Thomas, Marc and Oliver (did I miss anybody?).    Frankly, if
OpenOffice.org had the kind of widely trusted, committed, involved in the
community core developers that PostgreSQL already has, I wouldn't be on my
fourth draft of an OpenOffice.org Community Council charter.  OpenOffice.org
will have an election process because we are too big and too dispersed for a
simple trust network, not because we want one for its own sake.

PostgreSQL is, quite possibly, the smoothest-running Open Source project with
worldwide adoption.  I find myself saying, at least once a week, "if only
project X were as well-organized as PostgreSQL!"   It is perhaps not
coincidental that Postgres is one of the 15 or 20 oldest Open Source projects
(older than Linux, I believe).

How would a "democratic election" improve this?   And why would we want an
elected person or body who was not a core developer?    And if we elected a
core developer, why bother?  They aready run things.

Regarding your marketing angle:  Feel free to nominate yourself "PostgreSQL
Marketing Czar."    Write articles.  Contact journalists.   Generate press
releases for each new Postgres version.  Apply for a dot-org booth at
LinuxWorld.  Nobody voted for me (actually, I got stuck with the job by not
protesting hard enough <grin>).

Frankly, my feeling is, as a "geek-to-geek" product, PostgreSQL is already
adequately marketed through our huge network of DBA users and code
contributors.   As often as not, the database engine choice is made by the
DBA, and they will choose PostgreSQL on its merits, not because of some
Washington Post article.

OpenOffice.org is a different story, as an end-user application.   So we have
a Marketing Project.

--
-Josh Berkus
Porject Lead, OpenOffice.org Marketing