The KDE Democracy
Kevin Ottens @ Akademy 2013
Welcome everyone!
I got the honor of the community keynote
I hope to live up to your expectations :-)
This year I propose us to look at the long term evolution of our community
The KDE Democracy?
Kevin Ottens @ Akademy 2013
I should have put a question mark…
Are we a democracy? Do you think you live in a democracy?
Often people think democracy needs elections… it’s too simplistic
Elections exist in some totalitarian regimes
Athenian democracy didn’t have voting system, involvement is what matters
Sorry, I just like to start with history
The community is so large you might have missed some facts anyway
October 14th 1996
Matthias Ettrich’s email
Started it all…
Clearly not what he expected (as we’ll see later)
Kool Desktop Environment
We tried to hide it…
… but “Kool”… seriously!? ;-)
Work
on the
Kool Desktop Environment
No conciousness of a community
Only, the “thing” we produced mattered
Modules
We created suites/modules: kdepim, kdegames
Clearly necessary to sustain growth and stay efficient
Created interacting topical teams as a side-effect
KDE Rebranding
Like it or not, it has value: raises awareness of the community
Our responsibility to gently explain to people, and then time will do its deed
Still on-going
Work
from
KDE
The “thing” is secondary
The community and its customs are what matters
What!?
The “thing” is secondary is generally not an accepted statement
Why?
Why do I think it is true though?
Read on!
That’s a desktop environment
We rolled out 4 of those, are we done?
Yes: if the thing is what matters we’d just add features
No: because we keep growing and diversifying (answer to above “Why”)
Akademy 2006
That’s for me when we started to realize it…
And that explains and justify the KDE rebranding
The Quest for Project Identity and Definition
Aaron Seigo
I honestly think “Project” was misleading in the title
But a talk is not just the title… In particular it says:
“That [KDE] is a place rather than a direction”
KDE is not a project, it is an on-going process
Matthias Welwarsky (IIRC)
See “project” didn’t fit…
A project has an end, we’re timeless
It’s a journey not a destination
But, process is underwhelming: mechanical, not anthropological
Democracy?
That too is a place (concept)
That too is a journey and not a destination (fragile, fuzzy, need to stand for it)
Is it the meaning we were lacking?
Could we strive to be one of FOSS shining democratic organizations?
Democracy
needs
Citizens
Without citizens no democracy is possible
Your democracy is defined by its people and how power is shared among them
KDE Citizens?
People working on KDE projects…
“Obviously”
Any contributor, and I’ve a very wide definition of it:
Anyone who actively engage in what we do
What is a KDE project?
Is it a project using cmake linking to kdelibs?
Probably not… too simple
Would KDE accept my project?
A team, with a nice piece of server software
Can it join?
If not: Why?
I obviously satisfied my whiteboard and sticky notes fetish
We needed a tool
We worked on that last year
At last (Akademy 2006 vs Akademy 2012)
Values
Nothing technical in what we found for a definition
Culture and values are what matters in the end
It’s the most powerful cement one can find
Manifesto
We found out a manifesto would fit
It is the constitution of KDE
Open Governance
Democratic trait
Citizens can participate in the decision process
Free Software
Democratic trait
Touching citizens but mainly our users
Inclusivity
Democratic trait
Athenian democracy had a very limited definition of citizens
Broaden the set of possible citizens
Innovation
Scope trait
We strive to not be imitators but inventors
Common Ownership
Anarchist trait (abolishes excl. property after all) :-P
Pushes toward ego less management of our assets
No “it’s mine”, instead it is ours
Culture of respect and playing together
End-User Focus
Scope trait
That’s what makes us unique (we’re not another Apache or Eclipse)
Many Projects
We have projects (note the plural)
Still we feel part of a single family
That’s because of the values above
Cohesion
and
Diversity
Unique position
Cohesion through values and culture
Diversity in what we do
The Manifesto is accompanying the existing trend
Effects?
Is the manifesto the end of the process?
Was it just an exercise to make the implicit explicit?
Nope, it at least bear fruits
More Projects
New projects joined since publication
More to come (in discussion)
Tying up Projects
Existing projects getting closer
At least on the infrastructure side
Difficult to measure other aspects
What’s Next?
We’re in a sweet spot, we risk to become lazy
But, the manifesto is just a step stone on KDE’s journey
Plenty more to do
Completing
the
Democracy
We have a constitution
We need to complete our toolbox
Make the constitution alive!
Culture?
We have the values, how do we document the culture
Again not that much technical
A lot is tied to governance and power structures
We need to reevaluate and document our governances
e.V. and its ties to the community need to be reevaluated
How projects get in and out
Projects Governance
What are the common rules of our projects
Dictators? Meritocracy?
How do we build consensus?
Auto Organization
It’s good, but needs to be said somewhere
Also works only within a regulation framework
We don’t have that
Respect the Elders
Different from meritocracy!
Current activity level matters less
Unique culture and regulation, but we’re loosing it fast
Maybe it’s good, maybe it’ll end our auto-organization
Alliance Management
Really only with Qt through the foundation
“Foreign Office”
We might need a “foreign office” to do that properly
We have link to more projects and companies it need to be supported
Incubator
(BoF, Tuesday 4pm, room B2)
New projects can join
kdereview is ok for the short term technical overlook
Need a way to pass on the culture as they get in
To be continued…
Thank you!
Let’s keep walking the path and create great Free Software
This story is not over
We have plenty of opportunities, let’s work on them together with passion
The KDE Democracy
Kevin Ottens @ Akademy 2013
Welcome everyone!
I got the honor of the community keynote
I hope to live up to your expectations :-)
This year I propose us to look at the long term evolution of our community