Richard Braakman's Leadership Platform
ROLE I've given a lot of thought to this. What is the role of the project leader, and how should I fill it if I am elected? A lot of the obvious answers didn't fit. There are many things I would do as project leader, but most of them I would do anyway. Nothing stops any developer from promoting various favourite projects, or from doing just about anything else that a project leader might do. I think the difference is precisely that the project leader is appointed to speak for the project. The primary task of the project leader is to be the voice of the project. Internally, this means that the leader can say "let's do it" when a good idea seems to be stalled, or "this is going very wrong" when something is going very wrong. Stating such things openly will focus the attention of the project on an issue, and make it easier to accept changes. Externally, the leader gives the project a face. That way, people outside the project can interact with a single person, rather than facing a multitude of voices :-) The leader can make commitments on behalf on the project (though not binding ones), and can do the work of gathering a single, clear statement of opinion. I think that what happened with the KDE statement was a good example of this. I don't think PR is the leader's job, as such. Any developer can do it, and we currently have some developers who are doing a very good job of it. Matters of public relations probably need official approval more often than others, though, and the leader should be aware of that. PLANS I have no specific plans. I don't see the project as something that can be steered or directed. It's more like the Juggernaut: big, strong, slow to get started, and very hard to stop once it gets going. It can be aimed a bit, though, by clearing a path in the appropriate direction. And it can be accelerated by removing obstacles and stumbling blocks. I think the appropriate direction is what it has always been: to create a high-quality operating system that is entirely free. That is the key to all other goals, and we must not lose sight of it. SANITY Why would anyone want to be debian project leader? Historical evidence shows that it's a thankless job :-) For me it's the same masochistic tendency that attracts me to archive maintenance. I have an emotional stake in the success of the project, and it feels good to have a hand in that success. I'm just naturally attracted to meta-jobs like this. TIME I don't think that making time for it will be a problem. Staying in touch with the project will be the most time-consuming part of being project leader, and I do that already because I enjoy watching the project's activity. Even when I'm so pressed for time that I do nothing else, I still read the main mailing lists. QUALIFICATIONS I hope that most of you already know me from my activities within the project. That's a much better guideline than anything I could tell you :-) I'll still say something, though, because there are a lot of new developers, and because this is my chance to brag. Almost since I signed up as developer, I've been interested in project-wide activities, particularly ones that help focus the project on urgent tasks. I've made and promoted various task lists. You may remember the "libc5 packages" and "package overlaps" lists. I also made the "Hamm Bugs Stamp-Out List", which Wichert took over when I went on vacation. He's done an excellent job with it since. Last spring, Christian Schwarz and I collaborated to make Lintian (the ultimate list-maker :-). I think Lintian has a good chance to help the project climb another rung on the ladder of development process quality. I've also done much of the day-to-day archive maintenance in the past six months (except for this month). This has gradually eaten up all my Debian time, and I hope to make some structural improvements there. I do have prior experience with leading a volunteer project, IgorMUD, that is similar to Debian is size though not in scope. I didn't do that alone; I played various roles in a team of 6-12 people. People were sad when I resigned, that tells me something :) I left after six years, when I was lured away by the Debian Project. CONCLUSION Overall, I expect I will be a project leader who listens a lot and says little. I hope to speak up at just the right times. Richard Braakman