Matthew Miller, Fedora Project Leader (Red Hat, IBM) has recently written about calling Fedora a Community, where the volunters/developers are "Project Members". Jonathan Carter has been sending emails declaring Debian Developers are "Project Members".
What does it mean to be a Project Member? It means being less than a real member.
Today, August 23, is the European Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. By demoting the status of Members to Project Members, diluting their rights, Debian (a Google puppet) and Fedora/IBM have behaved like Totalitarian regimes.
Let's take a moment to dissect the term Project Member. According to the Project Management Institute, a Project is:
a temporary effort to create value through a unique product, service or result. All projects have a beginning and an end. They have a team, a budget, a schedule and a set of expectations the team needs to meet. Each project is unique and differs from routine operations—the ongoing activities of an organization—because projects reach a conclusion once the goal is achieved.
If a Project is temporary, being a "Project Member" is a nonsense term.
Being a "Project Member" means one thing: being inferior to a real Member.
Debian is not a Project and it is not an organization. Debian is simply a trademark owned by a US organization, Software in the Public Interest, Inc. A "Project Member" is a not a real member of this organization. A "Project Member" doesn't get to attend the annual meeting, nominate for the committee or vote for the committee. Therefore, being a "Project Member" is somewhere between a fudge and a fraud.
Membership is a human rights issue. Membership, like citizenship, confers rights. Using the term "Member" in an insincere manner is a fraud.
Being a "Project Member" in Debian or Fedora is like having your money "invested" with Bernie Madoff or Allen Stanford. Debian memberships, Fedora memberships and Ponzi schemes have a lot in common. These Memberships evaporate in the same way that Ponzi scheme investments disappear.
Fedora Developer Ahmad Haghighi has recently written about being erased from Matthew Miller's so called Fedora "Community". Miller has erased Ahmad. Hitler erased Jews. The method of erasing people may differ but the principle of an authoritarian leader removing people without any reason is identical.
Ahmad's blog was censored by the Fedora Planet. Fortunately, independent developers set up the alternative site WeMakeFedora.org and Ahmad's story can be told today. Please follow the WeMakeFedora RSS feed if you want to know next time somebody is erased.
Nazi Germany was a Community too. Every pure Aryan male was a real member of this Community. Jews and other people were expendable, like Project Members.
