Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 01:18:20 +1100 (EST) From: proff@suburbia.net To: nate@mt.sri.com (Nate Williams) Cc: terry@lambert.org, chuckr@glue.umd.edu, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Commerical applications (was: Development and validation Message-ID: <19970122141820.16633.qmail@suburbia.net> In-Reply-To: <199701220509.WAA23906@rocky.mt.sri.com> from Nate Williams at "Jan 21, 97 10:09:45 pm"
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> Terry Lambert writes: > > > > A weighted democracy would be one open-ended growth solution, as > > > > long as parametric changes could be made within the system. I have > > > > suggested this before. A trivial napkin drawing version: > > > I have doubts about such a system. How are the weights chosen? - Number of lines of code committed (using the count the semi-colens method?) - Number of lines of code committed multiplied by an elected coding quality weight? - Lines of code code in other free software projects/n + lines committed*m? - What is the weight for documentation? For make files? For user code? for vm code? - Should all weights be votable - dynamically adjusted according to votes * current weights? - Which is more stable? w1+w2+w3+w4=1 or w1*w2*w3*w4*w5=1? - How a new weights created? - How does one prevent factional deal making? - Will weights be applied retrospectively? - Should weights decline over time in the same manner as an infinitely trainable adaptive neural network? What about retrospectivity? On the one hand you entrench a pre-democratic feudal power structure and end up like Mandela's South Africa; a constitutionally reformed non-racially discriminatory capitalist society in which the blacks have all the votes, but the whites have all the capital. On the other (FreeBSD) hand the whites did all the work. Certainly a very interesting social engineering experiment; there is room here for long excursions into probability theory, game theory, cryptographic voting protocols (extending to protocols not traditionally seen as voting protocols such as Rabin's m/n secret sharing scheme), all excellent paper fodder. It would definitely attract a lot of welcome attention to FreeBSD. When viewed strictly as an experiment this idea has a lot of merit. If it actually pans out, then well and good, if not, then it could be used as some kind of Sawick poll. Cheers, Julian.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?19970122141820.16633.qmail>