[BioRuby] Restyling BioRuby.org

[Hilmar Lapp]

On Feb 20, 2012, at 4:51 AM, Pjotr Prins wrote:

> 4. One for you Hilmar: does the OBF actually encourage inertia in the Bio* projects?

How would the OBF do that?

In the present relationship between the OBF umbrella and its member projects, the OBF takes a completely hands-off approach with respect to how each of the member projects organize themselves. The OBF doesn't meddle in matters of its member project communities that concern the respective member project. As a consequence, the OBF by definition neither encourages nor discourages inertia in its member projects. Instead the OBF leaves it to each member project how inert or not they want to be.

I think this is different, for better or worse, from the relationship between the Apache Foundation and Apache projects, and we've had some of that discussion (such as, is it better or worse) as a result of Ross Gardler's talk at BOSC a while ago. Personally, I am open to OBF changing the nature of that relationship, but I think the drive to do that would have to come with very broad community support that cuts across our projects, rather than top-down.

>  It is appears to me that sitting leadership is reluctant to give away their positions.

I'm not sure - I can imagine that Chris F would more than happily turn over release and other leadership to someone else if they stepped up. I think volunteers taking leadership and responsibility is fundamentally at odds with the loosey-goosey fork-patch-pull request micro-contribution model that reins supreme on Github. While that model has done lots of good in terms of lowering the barrier to contribution, we must not forget that taking leadership and responsibility is not a micro-contribution, and by nature not low-barrier. Hence, cultivating a large following of micro-contributors is by no means prone to give you an ample resource for future leadership.

Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear.

	-hilmar
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: Hilmar Lapp -:- Durham, NC -:- hlapp at drycafe dot net :
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