[OpenID] What election?

[Eran Hammer-Lahav]

The OpenID Foundation community election (which you might not know is
happening) is a joke. A 100 or so members are going to choose 7 people to
seat on the board. There are currently 12 people running which means each
person have a little over 50% chance of winning. Not much for a democracy.

I have been arguing for lower membership fees for about a year now, and
finally, but embarrassingly secretive, the fees were dropped from $100 to
$25. It is still not free, but at $25 it is very hard to argue about it.
Still, the sum of advertising for the current election can be summed up in a
single email sent to this list. The election of community members is the
single real benefit members have. This is the first election and so the
first time there is a reason for people to join.

When were the elections announced? The day nomination started... Was there a
membership drive associated? No. Were bloggers contacted about this event
and the election and membership drive advertised (note the amount of bad
press OpenID is getting this week because of Facebook Connect)? Not that I
can tell.

I have friends on the current board but that does not stop me from declaring
it incompetent. I don't need to go after the big failures of how this board
is unable to get anything done (other than establish itself). I can just
point to how this election process is being (miss) managed to make my case.

If we can't get 1000 people to join as members, even with a $25 ticket
price, why do we have a foundation? It is *not* too much to expect 1000
people to care enough about OpenID to join. Is the foundation there simply
to make a bunch of large corporation feel more in control over this
enterprise? (And yes, one of those companies is my employer).

This board had a long meeting at the recent IIW, but ironically, there was
no membership drive outside the secret meeting room. Is there any more
relevant group of people to sign up? IIW had more than twice participants
than OpenID has members. I am sure the foundation could have doubled its
size right there. Or even ask the IIW organizers to add an option to the
event registration to also join the OpenID foundation (since people are
already paying a couple hundred dollars which they are likely to expense).

I am running for a community board seat in the upcoming elections, and this
is the kind of stuff that drives me nuts and motivated me to run in the
first place, so consider this me campaigning. I'm not running on a message
of change. I'm running on a message of a strong kick in the ass.

EHL

Ps. Knowing my gift to piss people off, I am going to do my part in helping
increase the membership count. If you want to make sure I am not on the
board, go to http://openid.net/foundation/, spend $25, and vote for someone
else.