[OpenID] What election?

[David Recordon]

Sent this in reply to another thread on the board at openid.net mailing  
list, though figured it worthwhile to reproduce here as Johannes  
touches on public versus private:

I decided to go and pull actual data and graph the usage (number of  
messages per month) of the two mailing lists overtime.  (Note that the  
messages from the board list were copied over to the board-private  
list as the foundation was announced.)

http://www.davidrecordon.com/board-list-usage.png

The delta between the usage of board versus board-private seems to  
have increased in 2008 about a month after the board grew to also  
include corporate board members which was in February.  This certainly  
isn't to say that the private list was always used less before that,  
but the delta clearly seems to have increased around that period.

Yes, this board (and the new board) must do a better job being  
transparent but I also truly believe that we've already seen through  
the work of those like Snorri, Nat, Brian and others that if there is  
something you want to see accomplished the board will help to empower  
you to make it happen if you're not able to do so yourself.

As I look back through the archives of the board-private mailing list,  
there are certainly threads which I believe we made the right choice  
of being private such as discussing non-public press opportunities  
with other organizations (whether that be Microsoft at RSA or the  
Liberty Alliance), meeting minutes after each meeting for review  
before they're posted publicly on (http://wiki.openid.net/OpenID_Foundation/Board 
), or the contract we have with our existing ED and our efforts to  
hire a new one.  There are also certainly threads which I see no  
problem if they were public and that they weren't either due to an  
oversight or a board member feeling uncomfortrable participating if  
the discussion were public.

I'm personally sorry for this, know that I've tried in multiple  
private discussions to ask the question if it really needs to be  
private, and will try even harder to push discussions off of the  
private list and onto this one.

At the same time, I think I'd have to ask all of you to realize that  
delegation can be more productive than groupthink whether it be by the  
board or the community.  I've seen this in the past with a discussion  
occurring on this public list only to have it stalled by one very  
vocal person who hasn't actually been involved in the rest of the  
public discussion or decision making.  Whether it be a board member,  
Foundation member, or community member we all must remember that at  
times the most productive thing we can do is allow for progress even  
if we don't fully agree with the methodology.

--David

On Dec 2, 2008, at 5:32 PM, Johannes Ernst wrote:

> On Dec 2, 2008, at 16:56, Eran Hammer-Lahav wrote:
>
>> ...I'm not running on a message
>> of change. I'm running on a message of a strong kick in the ass.
>
> I would say it slightly more politely, but I largely have to agree  
> with you. And I'm saying this as a current board member. (please  
> only shoot after you read the rest of this)
>
> I was very close to resigning from the board this summer for largely  
> the same reasons. For some reason, the dynamics on the current board  
> are always "we can't do that (yet)", instead of "done. next".
>
> Tearing my hair out and reflecting, I believe now it's largely a  
> people issue; we need a different board.
>
> The Customer Research Project that I spearheaded recently produced  
> the same message very loud and clear from more than a dozen long  
> interviews with people important to the success of OpenID, but very  
> little has happened since, (except for getting this election  
> started, which is progress of some sort even if miniscule.)
>
> It may be of interest that I advocated for making the results of the  
> Customer Research Project public to the foundation membership, more  
> or less unvarnished as they came in. But I was voted down; if was my  
> belief to put the truth out there and then fix it, rather than hide  
> it and continue as if everything was okay, which it is not.  
> [particular for the kind of community that the OpenID community is...]
>
> Would love to team up with everybody who's upset AND willing to put  
> on the time to make the board functional. If we have the same board  
> again, I'm likely to resign, EVEN if re-elected.
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Johannes.
>
>
>
> Johannes Ernst
> NetMesh Inc.
>
> <lid.gif> <openid.gif> http://netmesh.info/jernst
>
>
>
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