Matthias Kirschner mk@fsfe.org
- MJ Ray mjr@phonecoop.coop [2012-01-05 14:36:57 +0000]:
That seems rather opaque and neither democratic nor do-ocratic. As you may remember, I stopped volunteering when that approach did not produce proper consideration of putting any FSFE web pages under a free software licence.
(It does not make sense to talk about "democratic" when you talk about organisations. It just makes sense for states. For organisations we should talk about participation, transperency, decision making, etc.)
As one may expect from a supporter of ICA.coop/coop/principles.html and other democracy campaigns, I disagree with that parenthesis completely. People who want us to ask for lesser words instead of democracy are similar to those who want us to ask about lesser aspects like "open source" instead of freedoms, so I am really surprised and disappointed to see it from such a leading light in FSFE.
I feel it is as important that users control our corporations as it is that users control our computers.
Your input about the license of the FSFE was considered (at least by me). But a lot of people at that time did not agree with it. That can also happen in organisations where all members vote on a proposal.
I don't recall that consideration and did not find it in the archives. I suspect it was based on the usual objection, that the freedoms would help those that oppose us, more than they'd help our supporters.
Yes, mistakes can happen in democratic organisations, but then you have both open discussion in a known consideration process and a more informative outcome (even if that information is sometimes difficult to interpret).
I still think it was bad that you stopped your involvement, because of this.
Why? Once I had realised that I am merely a fellow traveller and actively disagree with this aspect of FSFE policy and tactics, I felt it better to transfer my involvement to other free software support organisations that I feel are more likely to succeed in the long term. After all, why would anyone continue to give to an organisation which they feel undermines its own campaigns?
If I'm right, FSFE undermines itself more slowly without my help but there's more chance another free software supporter will succeed and convince it to free its material before it dies. If I'm wrong, the world still had the same number of volunteers supporting free software and we lost mainly a bit of friction along the way.
Regards,