Søren Hansen and Michael Bienia

[Jonathan Carter (highvoltage)]

Hi Mark

Mark Shuttleworth wrote:
> Remember, governance in the Ubuntu community is delegated from the CC
> (and ultimately me). We believe in having a broad strong base of talent
> to handle the huge scale of Ubuntu, but that's not the same as believing
> that every decision should be taken in a completely consultative and
> transparent manner. Don't confuse those two! That's as bad as confusing
> Ubuntu and democracy - this is an appointed meritocracy.
> 
> We try to nominate the most competent people to the right positions and
> then trust them to make decisions which bind all of us. We DON'T second
> guess those decisions except in extreme cases. The various teams lead
> because we trust them to lead.

The explanation you give above used to be quite easy to find on the
Ubuntu website. I used to paste the link to people who would say things
like "well that's not very democratic of Ubuntu", but it seems to have
faded away through all the website iterations. In my opinion it should
be at least easy to find from one of the links on
http://www.ubuntu.com/community, and there should probably be some
mention of the SABDFL role on http://www.ubuntu.com/community/processes

IMHO it's crucial that contributors understand the meritocratic nature
of Ubuntu, and if it's explained more prominently there should be less
confusion.

-Jonathan