Re: [Fsfe-uk] What needs to be done.

[MJ Ray]

address@hidden writes:

> Sounds right. I wasn't advocating ATV necessarily; but STV and ATV are
> pretty much the same thing anyway.

Not really.  If you're using ATV in a multi-post election, you don't
have to deal with fractional transfers like you do with STV.  The
current opinion of the Royal Statistical Society is that STV with
Meek's Method is the optimal, I believe, although the ERS version is
good enough and easier to calculate.

Oh, and as to composites: yuck.

> I kind of did and didn't, I didn't really connect the two - obviously, a
> monthly meeting for an executive is nothing, so you can probably discount my
> argument ;)

Right.  There's nothing saying that there must be some resolutions
every month.  Indeed, the aim of specifying the month is to stop the
organisation being in a perpetual state of flux and make it so the
members only have to scrutinise once a month instead of watching us
like a weblog.

> The charter's probably more about spirit rather than the implementation,
> although that necessarily makes it either short or woolly. I think the FSF
> equivilent of Asimov's Laws would be near enough a good building block,
> since those are terms of reference under which we want to form this
> association. The promotion and support of Free Software is our goal - it's
> pretty much as simple as that.

I was trying to leave the door open a little bit more than just
supporting Free Software.  Although that might be our goal, I'd like
the association's mission to be to promote all of the freedoms of
software, ie the concept behind Free Software, not just advocate Free
Software the product, if you see what I mean.

Marc Eberhard <address@hidden> writes:

> Since I'm not familiar with UK laws, I'd rather not comment on that
> part. I trust you to know, what you do. :-)

I still need to check this properly.  Legally, the organisation would
be the responsibility of the executive or a subset of them.  Some sort
of agreement contract would need to be drafted and signed off, I
suspect.

> > > PICK A NAME
> > UK Association for the Freedoms of Software?  Or should it be British?
> UK Free Software Association?

I was trying to avoid the term "Free Software" in the name, as it only
preaches to the choir and I want the organisation to speak to
non-members at least as clearly as to supporters.  While I detest the
inaccurate marketing term "Open Source", I do agree with some of the
reasoning that led to its creation, so I would rather talk about
software freedoms than free software in external façades like the
name.  I don't want anyone to think we're another freeware/PD software
site -- not even for a second.

For the reasons given earlier, British Association for the Freedoms of
Software is my current preferred name.  Any upgrades?