Re: [Linux-aus] Nomination

[Michael Still <mikal@stillhq.com>]

On Mon, 5 Jan 2004, Michael Davies wrote:

> 
> <quote who="Anthony Towns">
> > On Sun, Jan 04, 2004 at 07:52:51AM +1100, Michael Still wrote:
> >> I believe there is a lot of capacity for greater cooperation between
> >> AUUG  and Linux Australia. I think that being on both committees is an
> >>  advantage, and wouldn't stop me from doing the right thing for Linux
> >> Australia, or AUUG individually.
> >
> > Hrm, I notice Andrew Cowie's also on the AUUG board. Is this a coup
> > attempt?
> 
> Indeed.  Greater cooperation is a good thing, but at the end of the day,
> AUUG and LA are both trying to be the leading OSS representative group in
> Australia, so there is an opportunity for conflict of interest.

Agreed. I would agrue however that all people are open to a conflict of 
interest -- for instance the president of a group of people like LA could 
quite easily manipulate things for their own financial benefit. What stops 
that from happening is that you elect people you trust to behave 
responsibly, and you have other people on the committee who are 
independant of that person.

Therefore, at least to me, it comes down to a question of whether you 
trust me to act in the best interests of LA or not. I can't answer that 
question for each voter -- only they can.

> I'd suggest some overlap between the execs is good since we're all
> friends, but if there is to remain two groups, both respective boards
> should also contain people that are independant too.

Last I heard, AUUG and LA had discussed whether to merge, and decided that 
they needed to know more about the two groups memberships before persuing 
that question further. While the groups are both individually viable, and 
not working against each other, the reasons to merge are also lesser.

> (Monopolies are bad, diversity is good etc etc etc)

Yes, but having two OSS groups working against each other is bad. This is 
also the case for say LA and LUGs.

Cheers,
Mikal

-- 

Michael Still (mikal@stillhq.com) | "All my life I've had one dream,
http://www.stillhq.com            |  to achieve my many goals"
UTC + 11                          |    -- Homer Simpson