It has taken me a while to comment here but I wanted to say - I am very proud to work for and with an organization and community that has made these choices. Thank you to Patrick and Emma for driving this forward and to you, Mitchell, for being a founder who evolves and learns and speaks so eloquently on what we need to do and be next.
Proud to work with you all Larissa On Friday, June 8, 2018 at 12:33:39 AM UTC-7, Patrick Finch wrote: > On 6/7/18 11:39 PM, Mitchell Baker via governance wrote: > > Sometimes good words and good aspirations get tarnished with history, and > > need to be set aside. I personally aspire to many aspects of our work > > being a meritocracy. And the original meaning I took for meritocracy in > > open source meant empowering individuals, rather than managers, or > > manager's managers or tenure-based authority. I still long to develop > > these things. > > > > However, it's now clear that so-called meritocracies have included > > effective forms of discrimination. This might be hidden bias, where some > > aspect of identity causes a person's contributions to be routinely > > devalued. It might be over discrimination or harassment. It might be > > threats that minimize the contributions even offered. Whatever the cause, > > open source "meritocracies" suffer from these problems -- open source > > projects tend to have less diversity than other software organizations. > > > > Fairly or not, the word "meritocracy" has come to signal systems where > > there is little effective restraint on perpetuating discrimination. It may > > even become a code-word for organizations that resist the need to build > > diverse and inclusive organizations. > > > > I personally long for a word that conveys a person's ability to demonstrate > > competence and expertise and commitment separate from job title, or college > > degree, or management hierarchy, and to be evaluated fairly by one's peers. > > I long for a word that makes it clear that each individual who shares our > > mission is welcome, and valued, and will get a fair deal at mozilla -- that > > they will be recognized and celebrated for their contributions without > > regard to other factors. > > > > Sadly, "meritocracy" is not that word. Maybe it once was, or could have > > been. But not today. The challenge is not to retain a word that has > > become tainted. The challenge is to build teams and culture and systems > > that are truly inclusive. This is where we focus. > > > > So in my role as Owner of the Governance module, I'm confirming that > > mozilla will retire the word "meritocracy" from our self-descriptions. > > I'll also take the opportunity to confirm that mozilla is fundamentally > > committed to making participation and leadership available to all. > > > > Mitchell > > > > Thank you Mitchell, and to everyone else for their contribution to the > discussion. > > > In addition to the proposal, six further issues have been raised. I’m > summarising them as: > > 1. Positive contribution in an area of the project is generally a > prerequisite for authority over that area of the project. > > 2. Authority in the Open Source project shouldn't be tied to being paid > by a particular entity. > > 3. Authority in an area of the project should involve continued > participation in that area of the project. > > 4. We should form a stance on the proactive sponsorship of > under-represented groups to future leadership positions. > > 5. The term “meritocracy” should be removed also from the Roles & Resp > governance page [0] per this discussion (this was pointed out to me > off-list) > > 6. The Super-Review Role should be removed from the Roles & Resp > governance page [0] per another on dev-platform[1]. > > > Issues 1 and 3 are deemed to be reasonably well covered. 2 is not > directly addressed in the previous proposal and I have updated the > wording of the new proposal, below. 4 will be debated further in a > discussion convened by Emma Irwin. 5 is addressed below. Removing the > Super-Review role (6) has been apparently agreed in dev-platform but not > discussed here nor acted upon. > > > I will therefore take these three actions: > > > A. To replace the current text on the governance main page[2] with: > > > Mozilla is an open source project. Our community is structured as a > virtual organization. Authority is primarily distributed to both > volunteer and employed community members irrespective of employment > affiliation as they show their ability through contributions to the > project. The project also seeks to debias this system of distributing > authority through active interventions that engage and encourage > participation from diverse communities. > > > B. To replace the current introductory paragraph on the Roles and > Responsibilities page [0] with: > > > The Mozilla project is governed by a virtual management team made up of > experts from various parts of the community. Some people with leadership > roles are employed to work on the Mozilla project and others are not. > Leadership roles are primarily granted to individuals based on how > active they are in the community, as well as the quality and nature of > their contribution. This is a resilient and effective way to guide our > global community. The different community leadership roles include: > > > C. And to remove from the Roles and Responsibilities page [0]: > > > Super-ReviewersSuper-reviewers are a designated group of strong hackers > who review code for its effects on the overall state of the tree and > adherence to Mozilla coding guidelines. Super-review generally follows > code review by the module owner, and the approval of a super-reviewer is > generally required to check in code. More information on code review can > be found in the mozilla.org code review FAQ. > > > > I’ll action these as soon as possible with the Mozilla.org team. > > > Many thanks, > > > > Patrick > > > > 0. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/governance/roles/ > > 1. > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.platform/fCJMf9hBGHQ > <https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21topic/mozilla.dev.platform/fCJMf9hBGHQ> > > 2. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/governance/ _______________________________________________ governance mailing list governance@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
