Re: Usability, MySQL, Postgresql.org, gborg, contrib, etc.

Hey,

First of all, who is this? I don't recognize the e-mail, and you haven't
been signing any of your posts.

> true, others, however, are very welcoming to direction.

AFAIK, this includes none of our major code contributors. So all you're
really talking about is manipulating the TODO list. You can't tell
programmers what to code unless you're paying them.

> It depends in the
> individual. Lastly, Bruce, Tom, Peter, and others are very didicated to
> PostgreSQL. If a real case can be made for a feature, I'm sure they are
> reasonable enough to see that and grudgingly implement it. Someone,
> however, has to keep an eye on that ball.

Yes, but they don't need a title to do so. Nor is there any reason for this
to be one person. In fact, you've just described one of the reason for the
Core's existance -- and even the Core defers to the consensus of decision on
this forum about which features to implement and how.

Now, if you're arguing that we could use a more cohesive, readable roadmap?
Sure! Want to prepare one? I can even help you find out what's under
development and what's not likely any time soon.

> Linux has Linus, he has a very good eye in the market forces.

Uh-huh. So? That still doesn't make him a "product manager".

> OpenOffice is very much
> managed by Sun.

I used to be a Project Lead for OpenOffice.org. I think the amount of
consensus and compromise, and the extent to which the Community Council and
the Project Leads govern the project, would surprise you.

Overall, I've not seen you present any coherent arguments as to:
1) why we need a new person with a title for marketing stuff;
2) what this person would be doing that's not already covered by existing
groups;
3) how this person would be able to accomplish their "job"; and
4) who this person would be.

As far as I'm concerned, we need use titles here only if it lends the entitled
some kind of authority with the outside world that helps them on their
volunteer projects (Robert Bernier, "Business Intelligence Analyst", is a
good example of a good use of titles -- that one convinces companies that he
approaches about case studies that he's for real). Titles are not at all
useful *inside* the community, we don't need them.

--
-Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco