[OSM-dev] The future of sysadmin

[Nick Hill]

Steve Coast wrote:
> All
> 
> Despite handing off tile to jburgess and www to TomH, and sysadmin in 
> general to NickH I'm still accused of centralising control and being 
> evil (I'm looking at you Lars). I don't think I'll ever stop being 
> accused of being evil but I will admit to the frailty of not having 
> infinite hours in the day.

I have no experience of the reality in which you exist as evil.

I pretty much agree with Steve's appraisal, that there is a question of managing 
a growing organisaton. The issues cannot be underestimated, as are so often 
underestimated in many businesses which, each year, fail the jump from small to 
medium size, not through lack of trying.

There are also issues that when relying on volunteers, for one reason or 
another, they may not be able to dedicate full effort all the time. This is 
especially true when the volunteer is charged with a degree of responsibility. 
Inevitably, at some point, a volunteer will not e able or willing to maintain 
the required level of dedication the responsibilities entail.

The issue with volunteers is compounded by there being competing issues which 
vie for the time someone may devote to voluntary work.

The issue is one much greater than finding someone who can maintain the effort I 
have invested in openstreetmap. The issue is to develop a structure which, in 
terms of managing hands actually doing work, is fault-tolerant. This concept is 
not one which needs to be carried around by those involved on a day-by-day basis 
in the organisation, but something which is almost hidden in the 'programming', 
the structure, the method by which the organisation operates.

Businesses have, over time, evolved issues of maintaining and regulating supply 
of the required manpower. Also, many successful organisations have developed 
structures to manage availability and distribution of manpower.

A very good example of successful voluntary organisations which maintain a level 
of system stability whilst relying on voluntary effort, are local political parties.

In a local political party, people who appear able to carry out specific roles 
are encouraged to stand for posts on the local executive over the next year. 
Perhaps monthly, those people meet to discuss issues arrising and who will 
tackle specific issues in the coming months in addition to their regular 
responsibility. The meetings have a regular chair and vice chair, themselves 
elected on the same basis as other members of the exec. At each meeting, the 
date for the next meeting is established. If a member is unable to attend, they 
give their apologies. If a member of the executive regularly doesn't either turn 
up or give apologies, one can assume other issues have consumed them, at least 
on a temporary basis. A member of the executive will ordinarily look for another 
member to take on the responsibility and be seconded to the executive until the 
next election.

In a voluntary organisation, it appears anyone with a regular responsibility in 
the organisation should be considered an executive, and be a member of the 
executive. Without that structure, an organisation may be too brittle and may 
not be able to adapt to what may be a highly variable supply of manpower.


A structure similar to that outlined above may be suitable for Openstreetmap, 
copying well established voluntary organisations. In other words, copying those 
orgainsations which exist after natural selection has mostly culled other 
possibilities.