[OE-core] OE, the TSC and the future

[Phil Blundell]

On Tue, 2013-06-18 at 17:23 +0100, Richard Purdie wrote:
> In brief summary the TSC has been doing two main things, acting as a
> task force and also being able to make a decision when needed. The
> latter has not happened much at all, the main work was as a task force
> on various issues, firstly engaging with the Yocto Project and figuring
> that out, more recently dealing with infrastructure issues and generally
> ensuring the health of OE.

It's certainly true that most of the current TSC members have been doing
a fine job on the "task force" front and I think we'd all be glad to see
them continue with that.  What's rather less obvious to me is whether
they actually need to be an elected body in order to do so; any group of
individuals who wish to form a task force are obviously free and welcome
to do so at any time.

As you note, the requirement for the TSC to actually make decisions has
been minimal/nonexistent of late and, again, it's not totally obvious
that having an elected body of experts on perpetual standby just in case
a decision might be needed is entirely necessary. 

In the many-layered world that we now inhabit, it seems reasonable to
let the individual layer maintainers (in consultation with their peers
when necessary) make the decisions that they think best for their own
trees.  Recent experience seems to suggest that, practically speaking,
this is already what's happening and when it comes to a contest of wills
the TSC have not shown any interest in overruling layer maintainers who
disagree with their stated position.

Plus, of course, we already have two bodies who are empowered by the OE
e.V. statutes to make decisions, namely the board and the GA.   Both of
these have wide discretion to do what they think best, and of course
they can convene a panel of expert advisers if they feel that any
particular issue needs specialist knowledge that they don't have.

So, all in all, I feel that we've come to the point where the TSC (as an
organisation) is no longer providing us with any particular benefits and
could be disbanded without causing any real hardship.  This would avoid
the administrative overhead of running elections for each of its seats,
which have recently been uncontested in any case, and would also avoid a
certain amount of potential ambiguity over where the TSC's jurisdiction
ends and the board's starts.

p.