[cab-discuss] CAB conf call

[Roy T. Fielding]

On Feb 7, 2007, at 3:35 PM, Simon Phipps wrote:
> I am dismayed to see the OGB statement that has already been  
> propagated. I feel my perspective has not been considered and given  
> the short notice at which the meeting was called I feel it would  
> have been appropriate to take longer reflecting before issuing a  
> position statement, especially considering how controversial the  
> issue is and how polarised opinions are.

I think that, given the topic and the nature of the legal issues
involved, the subject should have been broached with the OGB
before it was made into a PR topic by Sun officials.  The subsequent
damage to everyone's productivity could have been avoided with
a more balanced and reasonable approach to the whole discussion.

In particular, making predictions about an unreleased version of the
GPLv3 draft that is not yet subject to public review, and then asking
the whole community to comment on potential ramifications of that
unknown draft's use for OpenSolaris, is an irresponsible action. Period.

> While the summary is reasonable, it is incomplete and the  
> conclusions and "decree" are one-sided. I'd suggest this sort of  
> kangaroo-court behaviour is unacceptable and I'd request that it  
> not be repeated.

The OGB (or any deliberative body) cannot be hamstrung from action
just because one of its members happens to be off-line without telling
any of us.  I don't expect the group to abdicate responsibility whenever
I am not available, and neither should you.

Two days was enough notice given that it was our regularly scheduled
time slot, the affirmative votes were more than necessary to pass
the resolution even if you had been there to participate, we already
knew about and took into consideration the views you expressed, and
if you don't like the resolution then you can raise the issue again
at our next meeting.

That is the process we have defined.

In the future, you should look up the definition of kangaroo
court before throwing it around.  It is just a decision, like
any other, and the OGB is the right entity to make it.

....Roy