Just wanted to let the Rockbox people know

[afruff23]

I'd hazard that there aren't any successful open source projects that are true democracies.

I was just thinking what a disaster Rockbox would be with the Rockbox Player if it were. People want every single recording device and port available on a flash drive player.

[Bagder]

And the ones that try without any true leaders stepping forward end up with a ridiculous amount of bike sheds in every color imaginable..

not nesaccarily a bad thing... there are projects out there with the expressed intention of doing just that!

So, while on this topic then. Can you name any decently successful open source projects that try to be truly democratic?

[JdGordon]

So, while on this topic then. Can you name any decently successful open source projects that try to be truly democratic?

umm... dude.. I was joking...

[baobab68]

How about Wikipedia? Linux?

I think they both *try* to be democratic.

[Bagder]

Linux as in the kernel? It is way less democratic than Rockbox I'd say. In fact, in Rockbox there's no driving dictator as in many other projects so basically all committers have the same level of "rights". In Linux there's a very clear and explicit hierarchy that certainly is not democratic (either).

I can't speak of the wikipedia project as I know nothing about it. The wikipedia web site certainly tries to be democratic to some extent, but the masters override that at will which makes it not democratic.

[Llorean]

In every project there's got to be "some person or small group who will make the final decision when everyone else disagrees." Usually it's the person who holds the keys to the last gate barring entry (commit, changes to wiki page, etc). Some times this person is explicitly dictator, sometimes merely implicitly. It's possible that there are projects where the keyholder is given that position by democratic process, I suppose. But often is the case where they're just one of the people who started the project, and happened to be the one who owns the computers, or set up the repository.

It's really not a bad thing, because they have the power to ensure the project keeps moving by being able to add "and that is the final decision" on to things when debate gets too messy.

[shoe]

Just out of curiosity, how many people have Rockbox commit privileges?

[GodEater]

77 according to docs/COMMITERS

[Mikerman]

So much in life depends as much on how things are done as on what is actually done.

[baobab68]

Not democratic???

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/

[Llorean]

How is that democracy? People vote on which ideas they like, and suggest things. People can do that here. That doesn't mean those ideas will get in Ubuntu.

[baobab68]

What's the URL for the voting page?

[Llorean]

What do you think feature requests are? They're a means of saying "I think this is a good idea." Votes don't mean anything, because nobody's obligated to work based on the voting anyway.

That's the difference in a real democracy: The votes obligate action (or at least, determine the person who determines action), rather than suggesting it to free-willed individuals.