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-
- Historical version of the Constitution for the Debian Project (v1.2)
-
- Version 1.2 ratified on October 29^th, 2003. Supersedes Version 1.1
- ratified on June 21^st, 2003, which itself supersedes Version 1.0
- ratified on December 2^nd, 1998. Superseded by version 1.3, ratified
- on September 24^th, 2006.
-
-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
- decision-making 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 decision-making process.
-
-2. Decision-making 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 decision-making. 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 §4.1(3),
- §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, supersede and withdraw 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.
- 1. A Foundation Document is a document or statement regarded as
- critical to the Project's mission and purposes.
- 2. The Foundation Documents are the works entitled "Debian
- Social Contract" and "Debian Free Software Guidelines".
- 3. A Foundation Document requires a 3:1 majority for its
- supersession. New Foundation Documents are issued and
- existing ones withdrawn by amending the list of Foundation
- Documents in this constitution.
- 6. Together with the Project Leader and SPI, make decisions about
- property held in trust for purposes related to Debian. (See §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 §4.1(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 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, tallies, and
- results are not 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.
- 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 §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 §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 the method specified in section
- §A.6 of the Standard Resolution Procedure. The quorum is the same
- as for a General Resolution (§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 §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 votes 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 default option. The vote
- finishes when all the members have voted, or when the voting
- period has ended. The result is determined using the method
- specified in section A.6 of the Standard Resolution Procedure.
- 8. The Chairman can stand in for the Leader, together with the
- Secretary
- As detailed in §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 decision-making.
- 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 (see §9.1.) 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 be 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 decision-making 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 minimum 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 any sponsor of a resolution may call for a vote on
- that resolution and all 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(4).
- 4. The minimum discussion period is counted from the time the last
- formal amendment was accepted, or since the whole resolution was
- proposed if no amendments have been proposed and accepted.
-
- A.3. Voting procedure
-
- 1. Each resolution and its related amendments is voted on in a single
- ballot that includes an option for the original resolution, each
- amendment, and the default option (where applicable).
- 2. The default option must not have any supermajority requirements.
- Options which do not have an explicit supermajority requirement
- have a 1:1 majority requirement.
- 3. The votes are counted according to the rules in A.6. The default
- option is "Further Discussion", unless specified otherwise.
- 4. In cases of doubt the Project Secretary shall decide on matters of
- procedure.
-
- 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 the secretary may issue a statement
- that the issue is being withdrawn. If none of the sponsors of any of
- the proposals object within a week, the issue is withdrawn.
-
- The secretary may also include suggestions on how to proceed, if
- appropriate.
-
- A.6. Vote Counting
-
- 1. Each voter's ballot ranks the options being voted on. Not all
- options need be ranked. Ranked options are considered preferred to
- all unranked options. Voters may rank options equally. Unranked
- options are considered to be ranked equally with one another.
- Details of how ballots may be filled out will be included in the
- Call For Votes.
- 2. If the ballot has a quorum requirement R any options other than
- the default option which do not receive at least R votes ranking
- that option above the default option are dropped from
- consideration.
- 3. Any (non-default) option which does not defeat the default option
- by its required majority ratio is dropped from consideration.
- 1. Given two options A and B, V(A,B) is the number of voters who
- prefer option A over option B.
- 2. An option A defeats the default option D by a majority ratio
- N, if V(A,D) is strictly greater than N * V(D,A).
- 3. If a supermajority of S:1 is required for A, its majority
- ratio is S; otherwise, its majority ratio is 1.
- 4. From the list of undropped options, we generate a list of pairwise
- defeats.
- 1. An option A defeats an option B, if V(A,B) is strictly
- greater than V(B,A).
- 5. From the list of [undropped] pairwise defeats, we generate a set
- of transitive defeats.
- 1. An option A transitively defeats an option C if A defeats C
- or if there is some other option B where A defeats B AND B
- transitively defeats C.
- 6. We construct the Schwartz set from the set of transitive defeats.
- 1. An option A is in the Schwartz set if for all options B,
- either A transitively defeats B, or B does not transitively
- defeat A.
- 7. If there are defeats between options in the Schwartz set, we drop
- the weakest such defeats from the list of pairwise defeats, and
- return to step 5.
- 1. A defeat (A,X) is weaker than a defeat (B,Y) if V(A,X) is
- less than V(B,Y). Also, (A,X) is weaker than (B,Y) if V(A,X)
- is equal to V(B,Y) and V(X,A) is greater than V(Y,B).
- 2. A weakest defeat is a defeat that has no other defeat weaker
- than it. There may be more than one such defeat.
- 8. If there are no defeats within the Schwartz set, then the winner
- is chosen from the options in the Schwartz set. If there is only
- one such option, it is the winner. If there are multiple options,
- the elector with the casting vote chooses which of those options
- wins.
-
- Note: Options which the voters rank above the default option are
- options they find acceptable. Options ranked below the default options
- are options they find unacceptable.
-
- 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.