At 12:51 PM 3/14/2005, Dirk-Willem van Gulik wrote:
>On Mon, 14 Mar 2005, Ceki Gülcü wrote:
>
> > What is so special about the number 3? What's wrong with 5 committers? With
> > 4? With 2? With 1?
>..
> > Does "sustainable" necessarily mean 3 or more committers? Is a project with
> > a single committer yet consistent committer less viable than a project with
> > 30 disillusioned and inactive committters?
>
>Well - with just one commiter
>
>-> for sure no oversight.
Why not? A single developer can be overseen by a higher supervisory
body, as long as that developer agrees to submit to the decisions of
the supervisory body. The number of supervised developers should not
matter. You are probably referring to a situation where the developers
supervise themselves. Social studies have shown that decisions made
collectively do not always yield better results. For one, groups have
a stronger tendency to persist in their commitment to manifestly bad
decisions, compared to the capacity of a single individual to reverse
his/her own bad decision. The capacity to reverse decisions (good or
bad!) improves dramatically when the person or group reversing a prior
decision is different than the person or entity that took the initial
decision. Humans have an often devastating tendency to escalate on
their initial (seemingly inconsequential) decisions. For example, most
investors have a hard time selling loosing stocks and keeping winners
-- the exact opposite of the optimal strategy -- because of their
committment to their initial decision to buy.
This may sound contrary democracy (rule of the people by the people.)
However, one core component of democracy is the separation of powers
and independence between the 3 branches of government. So instead of
"supervision of developers by the developers," another approach
consists of supervision of developers by an elected body of
supervisors, for example the PMC.
You could cite Jakarta as a counter example. However, we should not
forget that the scope of LS is much more restricted than that of
Jakarta. Moreover, LS has 3 sub-projects compared to the dozen or more
in Jakarta.
>-> for sure an issue if he or she gets hit by a bus, a baby,
> whatever.
>
>and it is very questionable if what that group produces is an ASF
>community product.
What is a community product? If a community product is defined as a
product produced by the collaboration of multiple committers, then you
are right. However, if a community product is defined as the product
developed by *one* or more developers with *input* from multiple
constituents, be they simple users asking for help, developers
submitting patches or making suggestions, then a project with one
committer can produce a community product.
This brings me to formulate the subject question "What is a healthy
community?" as "What is a community?"
>Two is more than one - but it is at only three that group dynamics first
>start to kick in. And it is that group dynamic which is vital in building
>and maintaining a community.
Can you give examples of group dynamics kicking in within a group of 3
but not in a group of 2? The difference is not so obvious to me.
Assuming that everyone votes, a group of 3 will always be able to
decide by majority vote, but that is true for all odd numbered
groups. Is the difference in group dynamics between groups of 2 and 3
solely due to the fact that 2 is pair and 3 is odd?
Many successful partnerships have 2 partners, not 3 or more.
If we consider a community as a partnership between committers and
take nature as a possible model to emulate, then 2 would win hands
down. Indeed, the vast majority of living plants and animals on our
planet are the result of the partnership between 2 parents, not 3.
>Sure 5 or 15 is even better - but if you have to draw a line - 3 is as low
>as you can go.
> > a single committer yet consistent committer less viable than a project with
> > 30 disillusioned and inactive committters?
>
>Both should, and will, ultimately be garbage collected.
If garbage collection is cheap, then why not take chances with
projects consisting of just one committer supervised by a distinct body?
>Dw
--
Ceki Gülcü
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