[cab-discuss] Nominations?

[Roy T. Fielding]

On Feb 5, 2007, at 10:17 PM, Stephen Hahn wrote:

> * Justin Erenkrantz <justin at erenkrantz.com> [2007-02-05 21:55]:
>> On 2/1/07, Al Hopper <al at logical-approach.com> wrote:
>>> Hi Michelle!  If you're concerned about the voting mechanism  
>>> itself, I
>>> don't think that we need to run an actual vote to confirm whether  
>>> it works
>>> - since it's based on the same code/facility used by Apache.Org.   
>>> A simple
>>> dummy test conducted by a selected group of test voters will  
>>> confirm if
>>> the software works as intended.
>>
>> FWIW, the ASF voter tool (originally written by Roy; which leads  
>> me to
>> believe that is what you are referring to) requires SSH logins to  
>> cast
>> votes.  So, uh, I don't know how that'd work for OpenSolaris - unless
>> there's a box that all eligible voters have an SSH account on.  BTW,
>> it's fairly easy to do dry run ballots with all voters with the ASF
>> tool - we do that every time before a 'real' vote is conducted.  --
>
>   The repository hosting facility uses SSH logins, so we have an
>   increasing collection of SSH public keys.  We're in the process of
>   adding a server to host the voting software--well, a zone anyways.

Yes, though I provided the tool more as an example of how the
election is run, rather than an expectation that opensolaris would
use the same SSH interface.

Note that the Apache tool doesn't depend on SSH for authentication.
The only "auth" it uses is the shared key that is given to each voter
in combination with email alerts that go out each time that key is used.
We could just as easily use a web front end as the ballot and merely
paste the key into a form.  The reason I did not do that for Apache is
because we are Web server experts, and it is far more tempting for us
to watch the Web server at the wrong time than it is to watch the
shell activity and SMTP.  The reverse may be true for OpenSolaris.

BTW, it is important that the STV ballot be randomized per ballot,
not randomized once and sent to everyone in the same order.
No matter how hard we tried to educate folks, people would still
read the list from top to bottom and enter preferences in the
order read.  Also, the ballot should repeat that the voter should
order the candidates by preference of those they would like in
office and not include any candidate they don't want in office.
Most of that is auto-generated by the tools.

For example, I have included below the ballot that I received
for last year's election of the ASF board (minus the monitor
email addresses).

....Roy

================================================
Hello Apache members,

A call for votes has been declared for the following:

    Issue: members-20060613-board
    Voting style: single transferable vote for 9 slots

The following candidates have been nominated for the nine
available positions of Director within the Board of Directors of
The Apache Software Foundation, as defined by Article V of the
ASF Bylaws.   In order to maximize effective representation
of all members of the ASF, the 2002-2003 Board of Directors
has resolved that such an election will be decided according
to the Single Transferable Vote (STV) election process, as
described below.

PLEASE read the STV links below, but in general, the concept
is that you can vote for as many or as few candidates as
you wish, but you MUST list them in your order of preference.
The person that you most want to see on the board should be
listed first, followed the 2nd most wanted person, etc...

There are 9 slots available; you should select all the people you
want to be on the board, in the order in which you prefer them.
You can select less than 9 people, and you can also select more
than 9 people.

More information can be found at: foundation:/voter

Nominations:

    label:       Name:
     [h]          Cliff Schmidt
     [a]          Justin Erenkrantz
     [g]          William A. Rowe Jr
     [b]          Henri Yandell
     [f]          Sander Striker
     [d]          Dirk-Willem van Gulik
     [e]          Jim Jagielski
     [c]          Greg Stein
     [k]          Brian Fitzpatrick
     [i]          Ken Coar
     [j]          Ian Holsman
     [m]          Geir Magnusson Jr.
     [l]          Sam Ruby

Position statements can be found in SVN:
     foundation/Meetings/20060613/board_ballot_2006_06.txt

Voting closes at June 15, 2006 @ 14:00 UTC.The ASF Members Meeting
is scheduled to reconvene at June 15, 2006 @ 16:00 UTC (see:

     http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html? 
year=2006&month=6&day=15&hour=16&min=0&sec=0)

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =  
= = =

Your voting key for this issue: 278afe53739cf8b14cfc3d1af71a9059

In order to vote, use ssh to login to people.apache.org and then run

    /home/voter/bin/vote members-20060613-board \
                         278afe53739cf8b14cfc3d1af71a9059 "vote"

where "vote" must be replaced by a single word containing the
concatenated labels of candidates in the order that you wish them
to be selected.  In other words, if you want to vote for the candidates
labeled [x], [s], and [p], in that order, then your vote should be  
"xsp".

This election will be decided according to the Single Transferable Vote
rules described at

    http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/BoardElectionVoteCounting
    http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/votingsystems/stvi.htm
    http://www.cix.co.uk/~rosenstiel/stvrules/index.htm

for an election with 9 open slots.

You have one vote.  Use your vote by entering the label of your
first preference candidate followed by, if desired, the label of your
second preference candidate, and so on until you are indifferent about
the remaining candidates.  The sequence of your preferences is crucial.
You should continue to express preferences only as long as you are able
to place successive candidates in order.  A later preference is  
considered
only if an earlier preference has a surplus above the quota required for
election, or is excluded because of insufficient support.  Under no
circumstances will a later preference count against an earlier  
preference.

You may list as many candidates as you wish, but no more than once per
vote (e.g., "xsxp" would be rejected).  The voter code will not attempt
to verify that the labels chosen are within the range of candidates.
If for some reason you are unable to use ssh to access  
people.apache.org,
then you can vote by proxy: simply send your voting key to some
person with ssh access that you trust, preferably with instructions
on how you wish them to place your vote.

For verification purposes, you will be receiving an e-mail notification
each time your voting key is used.  Repeat votes will be considered
a complete replacement of your prior vote.  Your vote will be
recorded in a tally file and sent to the vote monitors along with
a different unique key, minimizing the chance that the contents of
your vote will be accidentally seen by someone else while associated
to you.  That is why the verification e-mail will only state that you
have voted, rather than including how you voted.

If you have any problems or questions, send a reply to the vote monitors
for this issue:  ...