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diff --git a/includes/common/doc/constitution.txt b/includes/common/doc/constitution.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 191f73be7..000000000 --- a/includes/common/doc/constitution.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,603 +0,0 @@ - Debian Constitution - - Constitution for the Debian Project (v1.0) - -1. Introduction - - The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made - common cause to create a free operating system. - - This document describes the organisational structure for formal - decisionmaking in the Project. It does not describe the goals of the - Project or how it achieves them, or contain any policies except those - directly related to the decisionmaking process. - -2. Decisionmaking bodies and individuals - - Each decision in the Project is made by one or more of the following: - 1. The Developers, by way of General Resolution or an election; - 2. The Project Leader; - 3. The Technical Committee and/or its Chairman; - 4. The individual Developer working on a particular task; - 5. Delegates appointed by the Project Leader for specific tasks. - 6. The Project Secretary; - - Most of the remainder of this document will outline the powers of - these bodies, their composition and appointment, and the procedure for - their decisionmaking. The powers of a person or body may be subject to - review and/or limitation by others; in this case the reviewing body or - person's entry will state this. In the list above, a person or body is - usually listed before any people or bodies whose decisions they can - overrule or who they (help) appoint - but not everyone listed earlier - can overrule everyone listed later. - - 2.1. General rules - - 1. Nothing in this constitution imposes an obligation on anyone to do - work for the Project. A person who does not want to do a task - which has been delegated or assigned to them does not need to do - it. However, they must not actively work against these rules and - decisions properly made under them. - 2. A person may hold several posts, except that the Project Leader, - Project Secretary and the Chairman of the Technical Committee must - be distinct, and that the Leader cannot appoint themselves as - their own Delegate. - 3. A person may leave the Project or resign from a particular post - they hold, at any time, by stating so publicly. - -3. Individual Developers - - 3.1. Powers - - An individual Developer may - 1. make any technical or nontechnical decision with regard to their - own work; - 2. propose or sponsor draft General Resolutions; - 3. propose themselves as a Project Leader candidate in elections; - 4. vote on General Resolutions and in Leadership elections. - - 3.2. Composition and appointment - - 1. Developers are volunteers who agree to further the aims of the - Project insofar as they participate in it, and who maintain - package(s) for the Project or do other work which the Project - Leader's Delegate(s) consider worthwhile. - 2. The Project Leader's Delegate(s) may choose not to admit new - Developers, or expel existing Developers. If the Developers feel - that the Delegates are abusing their authority they can of course - override the decision by way of General Resolution - see s.4.1(3), - s.4.2. - - 3.3. Procedure - - Developers may make these decisions as they see fit. - -4. The Developers by way of General Resolution or election - - 4.1. Powers - - Together, the Developers may: - 1. Appoint or recall the Project Leader. - 2. Amend this constitution, provided they agree with a 3:1 majority. - 3. Override any decision by the Project Leader or a Delegate. - 4. Override any decision by the Technical Committee, provided they - agree with a 2:1 majority. - 5. Issue nontechnical policy documents and statements. - These include documents describing the goals of the project, its - relationship with other free software entities, and nontechnical - policies such as the free software licence terms that Debian - software must meet. - They may also include position statements about issues of the day. - 6. Together with the Project Leader and SPI, make decisions about - property held in trust for purposes related to Debian. (See - s.9.1.) - - 4.2. Procedure - - 1. The Developers follow the Standard Resolution Procedure, below. A - resolution or amendment is introduced if proposed by any Developer - and sponsored by at least K other Developers, or if proposed by - the Project Leader or the Technical Committee. - 2. Delaying a decision by the Project Leader or their Delegate: - 1. If the Project Leader or their Delegate, or the Technical - Committee, has made a decision, then Developers can override - them by passing a resolution to do so; see s4.1(3). - 2. If such a resolution is sponsored by at least 2K Developers, - or if it is proposed by the Technical Committee, the - resolution puts the decision immediately on hold (provided - that resolution itself says so). - 3. If the original decision was to change a discussion period or - a voting period, or the resolution is to override the - Technical Committee, then only K Developers need to sponsor - the resolution to be able to put the decision immediately on - hold. - 4. If the decision is put on hold, an immediate vote is held to - determine whether the decision will stand until the full vote - on the decision is made or whether the implementation of the - original decision will be be delayed until then. There is no - quorum for this immediate procedural vote. - 5. If the Project Leader (or the Delegate) withdraws the - original decision, the vote becomes moot, and is no longer - conducted. - 3. Votes are taken by the Project Secretary. Votes and tallies - results are not be revealed during the voting period; after the - vote the Project Secretary lists all the votes cast. The voting - period is 2 weeks, but may be varied by up to 1 week by the - Project Leader, and may be ended by the Project Secretary when the - outcome of a vote is no longer in doubt. - 4. The minimum discussion period is 2 weeks, but may be varied by up - to 1 week by the Project Leader. The Project Leader has a casting - vote. There is a quorum of 3Q. - 5. Proposals, sponsors, amendments, calls for votes and other formal - actions are made by announcement on a publicly-readable electronic - mailing list designated by the Project Leader's Delegate(s); any - Developer may post there. - 6. Votes are cast by email in a manner suitable to the Secretary. The - Secretary determines for each poll whether voters can change their - votes. - 7. Q is half of the square root of the number of current Developers. - K is Q or 5, whichever is the smaller. Q and K need not be - integers and are not rounded. - -5. Project Leader - - 5.1. Powers - - The Project Leader may: - 1. Appoint Delegates or delegate decisions to the Technical - Committee. - The Leader may define an area of ongoing responsibility or a - specific decision and hand it over to another Developer or to the - Technical Committee. - Once a particular decision has been delegated and made the Project - Leader may not withdraw that delegation; however, they may - withdraw an ongoing delegation of particular area of - responsibility. - 2. Lend authority to other Developers. - The Project Leader may make statements of support for points of - view or for other members of the project, when asked or otherwise; - these statements have force if and only if the Leader would be - empowered to make the decision in question. - 3. Make any decision which requires urgent action. - This does not apply to decisions which have only become gradually - urgent through lack of relevant action, unless there is a fixed - deadline. - 4. Make any decision for whom noone else has responsibility. - 5. Propose draft General Resolutions and amendments. - 6. Together with the Technical Committee, appoint new members to the - Committee. (See s.6.2.) - 7. Use a casting vote when Developers vote. - The Project Leader also has a normal vote in such ballots. - 8. Vary the discussion period for Developers' votes (as above). - 9. Lead discussions amongst Developers. - The Project Leader should attempt to participate in discussions - amongst the Developers in a helpful way which seeks to bring the - discussion to bear on the key issues at hand. The Project Leader - should not use the Leadership position to promote their own - personal views. - 10. Together with SPI, make decisions affecting property held in trust - for purposes related to Debian. (See s.9.1.) - - 5.2. Appointment - - 1. The Project Leader is elected by the Developers. - 2. The election begins nine weeks before the leadership post becomes - vacant, or (if it is too late already) immediately. - 3. For the following three weeks any Developer may nominate - themselves as a candidate Project Leader. - 4. For three weeks after that no more candidates may be nominated; - candidates should use this time for campaigning (to make their - identities and positions known). If there are no candidates at the - end of the nomination period then the nomination period is - extended for three further weeks, repeatedly if necessary. - 5. The next three weeks are the polling period during which - Developers may cast their votes. Votes in leadership elections are - kept secret, even after the election is finished. - 6. The options on the ballot will be those candidates who have - nominated themselves and have not yet withdrawn, plus None Of The - Above. If None Of The Above wins the election then the election - procedure is repeated, many times if necessary. - 7. The decision will be made using Concorde Vote Counting. The quorum - is the same as for a General Resolution (s.4.2) and the default - option is None Of The Above. - 8. The Project Leader serves for one year from their election. - - 5.3. Procedure - - The Project Leader should attempt to make decisions which are - consistent with the consensus of the opinions of the Developers. - - Where practical the Project Leader should informally solicit the views - of the Developers. - - The Project Leader should avoid overemphasizing their own point of - view when making decisions in their capacity as Leader. - -6. Technical committee - - 6.1. Powers - - The Technical Committee may: - 1. Decide on any matter of technical policy. - This includes the contents of the technical policy manuals, - developers' reference materials, example packages and the - behaviour of non-experimental package building tools. (In each - case the usual maintainer of the relevant software or - documentation makes decisions initially, however; see 6.3(5).) - 2. Decide any technical matter where Developers' jurisdictions - overlap. - In cases where Developers need to implement compatible technical - policies or stances (for example, if they disagree about the - priorities of conflicting packages, or about ownership of a - command name, or about which package is responsible for a bug that - both maintainers agree is a bug, or about who should be the - maintainer for a package) the technical committee may decide the - matter. - 3. Make a decision when asked to do so. - Any person or body may delegate a decision of their own to the - Technical Committee, or seek advice from it. - 4. Overrule a Developer (requires a 3:1 majority). - The Technical Committee may ask a Developer to take a particular - technical course of action even if the Developer does not wish to; - this requires a 3:1 majority. For example, the Committee may - determine that a complaint made by the submitter of a bug is - justified and that the submitter's proposed solution should be - implemented. - 5. Offer advice. - The Technical Committee may make formal announcements about its - views on any matter. Individual members may of course make - informal statements about their views and about the likely views - of the committee. - 6. Together with the Project Leader, appoint new members to itself or - remove existing members. (See s.6.2.) - 7. Appoint the Chairman of the Technical Committee. - The Chairman is elected by the Committee from its members. All - members of the committee are automatically nominated; the - committee vote starting one week before the post will become - vacant (or immediately, if it is already too late). The members - may vote by public acclamation for any fellow committee member, - including themselves; there is no None Of The Above option. The - vote finishes when all the members have voted or when the outcome - is no longer in doubt. The result is determined according to - Concorde Vote Counting. - 8. The Chairman can stand in for the Leader, together with the - Secretary - As detailed in s.7.1(2), the Chairman of the Technical Committee - and the Project Secretary may together stand in for the Leader if - there is no Leader. - - 6.2. Composition - - 1. The Technical Committee consists of up to 8 Developers, and should - usually have at least 4 members. - 2. When there are fewer than 8 members the Technical Committee may - recommend new member(s) to the Project Leader, who may choose - (individually) to appoint them or not. - 3. When there are 5 members or fewer the Technical Committee may - appoint new member(s) until the number of members reaches 6. - 4. When there have been 5 members or fewer for at least one week the - Project Leader may appoint new member(s) until the number of - members reaches 6, at intervals of at least one week per - appointment. - 5. If the Technical Committee and the Project Leader agree they may - remove or replace an existing member of the Technical Committee. - - 6.3. Procedure - - 1. The Technical Committee uses the Standard Resolution Procedure. - A draft resolution or amendment may be proposed by any member of - the Technical Committee. There is no minimum discussion period; - the voting period lasts for up to one week, or until the outcome - is no longer in doubt. Members may change their votes. There is a - quorum of two. - 2. Details regarding voting - The Chairman has a casting vote. When the Technical Committee - votes whether to override a Developer who also happens to be a - member of the Committee, that member may not vote (unless they are - the Chairman, in which case they may use only their casting vote). - 3. Public discussion and decisionmaking. - Discussion, draft resolutions and amendments, and votes by members - of the committee, are made public on the Technical Committee - public discussion list. There is no separate secretary for the - Committee. - 4. Confidentiality of appointments. - The Technical Committee may hold confidential discussions via - private email or a private mailing list or other means to discuss - appointments to the Committee. However, votes on appointments must - be public. - 5. No detailed design work. - The Technical Committee does not engage in design of new proposals - and policies. Such design work should be carried out by - individuals privately or together and discussed in ordinary - technical policy and design forums. - The Technical Committee restricts itself to choosing from or - adopting compromises between solutions and decisions which have - been proposed and reasonably thoroughly discussed elsewhere. - Individual members of the technical committee may of course - participate on their own behalf in any aspect of design and policy - work. - 6. Technical Committee makes decisions only as last resort. - The Technical Committee does not make a technical decision until - efforts to resolve it via consensus have been tried and failed, - unless it has been asked to make a decision by the person or body - who would normally be responsible for it. - -7. The Project Secretary - - 7.1. Powers - - The Secretary: - 1. Takes votes amongst the Developers, and determines the number and - identity of Developers, whenever this is required by the - constitution. - 2. Can stand in for the Leader, together with the Chairman of the - Technical Committee. - If there is no Project Leader then the Chairman of the Technical - Committee and the Project Secretary may by joint agreement make - decisions if they consider it imperative to do so. - 3. Adjudicates any disputes about interpretation of the constitution. - 4. May delegate part or all of their authority to someone else, or - withdraw such a delegation at any time. - - 7.2. Appointment - - The Project Secretary is appointed by the Project Leader and the - current Project Secretary. - - If the Project Leader and the current Project Secretary cannot agree - on a new appointment they must ask the board of SPI to appoint a - Secretary. - - If there is no Project Secretary or the current Secretary is - unavailable and has not delegated authority for a decision then the - decision may be made or delegated by the Chairman of the Technical - Committee, as Acting Secretary. - - The Project Secretary's term of office is 1 year, at which point they - or another Secretary must be (re)appointed. - - 7.3. Procedure - - The Project Secretary should make decisions which are fair and - reasonable, and preferably consistent with the consensus of the - Developers. - - When acting together to stand in for an absent Project Leader the - Chairman of the Technical Committee and the Project Secretary should - make decisions only when absolutely necessary and only when consistent - with the consensus of the Developers. - -8. The Project Leader's Delegates - - 8.1. Powers - - The Project Leader's Delegates: - 1. have powers delegated to them by the Project Leader; - 2. may make certain decisions which the Leader may not make directly, - including approving or expelling Developers or designating people - as Developers who do not maintain packages. This is to avoid - concentration of power, particularly over membership as a - Developer, in the hands of the Project Leader. - - 8.2. Appointment - - The Delegates are appointed by the Project Leader and may be replaced - by the Leader at the Leader's discretion. The Project Leader may not - make the position as a Delegate conditional on particular decisions by - the Delegate, nor may they override a decision made by a Delegate once - made. - - 8.3. Procedure - - Delegates may make decisions as they see fit, but should attempt to - implement good technical decisions and/or follow consensus opinion. - -9. Software in the Public Interest - - SPI and Debian are separate organisations who share some goals. Debian - is grateful for the legal support framework offered by SPI. Debian's - Developers are currently members of SPI by virtue of their status as - Developers. - - 9.1. Authority - - 1. SPI has no authority regarding Debian's technical or nontechnical - decisions, except that no decision by Debian with respect to any - property held by SPI shall require SPI to act outside its legal - authority, and that Debian's constitution may occasionally use SPI - as a decision body of last resort. - 2. Debian claims no authority over SPI other than that over the use - of certain of SPI's property, as described below, though Debian - Developers may be granted authority within SPI by SPI's rules. - 3. Debian Developers are not agents or employees of SPI, or of each - other or of persons in authority in the Debian Project. A person - acting as a Developer does so as an individual, on their own - behalf. - - 9.2. Management of property for purposes related to Debian - - Since Debian has no authority to hold money or property, any donations - for the Debian Project must made to SPI, which manages such affairs. - - SPI have made the following undertakings: - 1. SPI will hold money, trademarks and other tangible and intangible - property and manage other affairs for purposes related to Debian. - 2. Such property will be accounted for separately and held in trust - for those purposes, decided on by Debian and SPI according to this - section. - 3. SPI will not dispose of or use property held in trust for Debian - without approval from Debian, which may be granted by the Project - Leader or by General Resolution of the Developers. - 4. SPI will consider using or disposing of property held in trust for - Debian when asked to do so by the Project Leader. - 5. SPI will use or dispose of property held in trust for Debian when - asked to do so by a General Resolution of the Developers, provided - that this is compatible with SPI's legal authority. - 6. SPI will notify the Developers by electronic mail to a Debian - Project mailing list when it uses or disposes of property held in - trust for Debian. - -A. Standard Resolution Procedure - - These rules apply to communal decisionmaking by committees and - plebiscites, where stated above. - - A.1. Proposal - - The formal procedure begins when a draft resolution is proposed and - sponsored, as required. - - A.1. Discussion and Amendment - - 1. Following the proposal, the resolution may be discussed. - Amendments may be made formal by being proposed and sponsored - according to the requirements for a new resolution, or directly by - the proposer of the original resolution. - 2. A formal amendment may be accepted by the resolution's proposer, - in which case the formal resolution draft is immediately changed - to match. - 3. If a formal amendment is not accepted, or one of the sponsors of - the resolution does not agree with the acceptance by the proposer - of a formal amendment, the amendment remains as an amendment and - will be voted on. - 4. If an amendment accepted by the original proposer is not to the - liking of others, they may propose another amendment to reverse - the earlier change (again, they must meet the requirements for - proposer and sponsor(s).) - 5. The proposer or a resolution may suggest changes to the wordings - of amendments; these take effect if the proposer of the amendment - agrees and none of the sponsors object. In this case the changed - amendments will be voted on instead of the originals. - 6. The proposer of a resolution may make changes to correct minor - errors (for example, typographical errors or inconsistencies) or - changes which do not alter the meaning, providing noone objects - within 24 hours. In this case the mininum discussion period is not - restarted. - - A.2. Calling for a vote - - 1. The proposer or a sponsor of a motion or an amendment may call for - a vote, providing that the minimum discussion period (if any) has - elapsed. - 2. The proposer or a sponsor of a motion may call for a vote on any - or all of the amendments individually or together; the proposer or - sponsor of an amendment may call for a vote only on that amendment - and related amendments. - 3. The person who calls for a vote states what they believe the - wordings of the resolution and any relevant amendments are, and - consequently what form the ballot should take. However, the final - decision on the form of ballot(s) is the Secretary's - see 7.1(1), - 7.1(3) and A.3(6). - 4. The minimum discussion period is counted from the time the last - formal amendment was accepted, or the last related formal - amendment was accepted if an amendment is being voted on, or since - the whole resolution was proposed if no amendments have been - proposed and accepted. - - A.3. Voting procedure - - 1. Each independent set of related amendments is voted on in a - separate ballot. Each such ballot has as options all the sensible - combinations of amendments and options, and an option Further - Discussion. If Further Discussion wins then the entire resolution - procedure is set back to the start of the discussion period. No - quorum is required for an amendment. - 2. When the final form of the resolution has been determined it is - voted on in a final ballot, in which the options are Yes, No and - Further Discussion. If Further Discussion wins then the entire - procedure is set back to the start of the discussion period. - 3. The vote taker (if there is one) or the voters (if voting is done - by public pronouncement) may arrange for these ballots to be held - simultaneously, even (for example) using a single voting message. - If amendment ballot(s) and the final ballot are combined in this - way then it must be possible for a voter to vote differently in - the final ballot for each of the possible forms of the final draft - resolution. - 4. Votes may be cast during the voting period, as specified - elsewhere. If the voting period can end if the outcome is no - longer in doubt, the possibility that voters may change their - votes is not considered. - 5. The votes are counted according to the Concorde Vote Counting. If - a quorum is required then the default option is Further - Discussion. - 6. In cases of doubt the Project Secretary shall decide on matters of - procedure (for example, whether particular amendments should be - considered independent or not). - - A.4. Withdrawing resolutions or unaccepted amendments - - The proposer of a resolution or unaccepted amendment may withdraw it. - In this case new proposers may come forward keep it alive, in which - case the first person to do so becomes the new proposer and any others - become sponsors if they aren't sponsors already. - - A sponsor of a resolution or amendment (unless it has been accepted) - may withdraw. - - If the withdrawal of the proposer and/or sponsors means that a - resolution has no proposer or not enough sponsors it will not be voted - on unless this is rectified before the resolution expires. - - A.5. Expiry - - If a proposed resolution has not been discussed, amended, voted on or - otherwise dealt with for 4 weeks then it is considered to have been - withdrawn. - - A.6. Concorde Vote Counting - - 1. This is used to determine the winner amongst a list of options. - Each ballot paper gives a ranking of the voter's preferred - options. (The ranking need not be complete.) - 2. Option A is said to Dominate option B if strictly more ballots - prefer A to B than prefer B to A. - 3. All options which are Dominated by at least one other option are - discarded, and references to them in ballot papers will be - ignored. - 4. If there is any option which Dominates all others then that is the - winner. - 5. If there is now more than one option remaining Single - Transferrable Vote will be applied to choose amongst those - remaining: - + The number of first preferences for each option is counted, - and if any option has more than half it is the winner. - + Otherwise the option with the lowest number of first - preferences is eliminated and its votes redistributed - according to the second preferences. - + This elimination procedure is repeated, moving down ballot - papers to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. preferences as required, until - one option gets more than half of the `first' preferences. - 6. In the case of ties the elector with a casting vote will decide. - The casting vote does not count as a normal vote; however that - elector will usually also get a normal vote. - 7. If a supermajority is required the number of Yes votes in the - final ballot is reduced by an appropriate factor. Strictly - speaking, for a supermajority of F:A, the number of ballots which - prefer Yes to X (when considering whether Yes Dominates X or X - Dominates Yes) or the number of ballots whose first (remaining) - preference is Yes (when doing STV comparisons for winner and - elimination purposes) is multiplied by a factor A/F before the - comparison is done. This means that a 2:1 vote, for example, means - twice as many people voted for as against; abstentions are not - counted. - 8. If a quorum is required, there must be at least that many votes - which prefer the winning option to the default option. If there - are not then the default option wins after all. For votes - requiring a supermajority, the actual number of Yes votes is used - when checking whether the quorum has been reached. - - When the Standard Resolution Procedure is to be used, the text which - refers to it must specify what is sufficient to have a draft - resolution proposed and/or sponsored, what the minimum discussion - period is, and what the voting period is. It must also specify any - supermajority and/or the quorum (and default option) to be used. - -B. Use of language and typography - - The present indicative (`is', for example) means that the statement is - a rule in this constitution. `May' or `can' indicates that the person - or body has discretion. `Should' means that it would be considered a - good thing if the sentence were obeyed, but it is not binding. Text - marked as a citation, such as this, is rationale and does not form - part of the constitution. It may be used only to aid interpretation in - cases of doubt. |