Bruce Perens Voted off SPI Board

An anonymous reader writes "ComputerWorld is reporting that open source evangelist Bruce Perens has been ousted from the board of Software in the Public Interest. Even though he founded the organization he said it was time to move on, stating that he probably shouldn't have run but just couldn't let it go. It seems that for the time being Perens in content to focus on the truly important things, like watching his son grow and making time for his family. I just hope that he isn't gone for too long."

Comments

Re:Miswording

[portmapper]

> It sounds like he was forcefully ejected from his own board, but the story leads me to believe that this is what he wanted-

"forcefully ejected"? He was not re-elected.

Re:Miswording

[lxs]

Well, looking at the attendance records (which were posted with the election announcement, I can't seem to find them now), you'd see that he was absent from meetings very often, more than anyone else in fact, so I guess this solution is best for all involved.

Re:Miswording

[lxs]

here it is

TFA explains it

[Morgaine]

if this guy is most famous (hey, I'm paraphrasing TFA) for getting fired, then what's his next move?

Well if you'd bothered to post the sentence that followed in TF article, it would have explained a lot and destroyed the basis of your argument:

>> Perens disagreed with the direction HP was taking on its Linux platform when it merged with Compaq.

A company that fires you when you disagree with them is most emphatically a company that you no longer want to work for.

Bruce has principles and doesn't toe the company line when it seems wrong. In my book, that's a good thing.

Re:Miswording

[Bruce Perens]

I missed oh, 8 out of 12 board meetings due to being on airplanes (doing stuff for Open Source) and otherwise being busy. And that really pissed people off. I am working on things like the software patents issue and have prioritized that over stuff like SPI. Although I am spending time on my son and view that as my highest priority, I have not retired and am still working full-time. Half of my paid time for Sourcelabs is to work on Open Source issues of my own choice under my own direction. The other half is to work on Open Source issues for Sourcelabs customers.

I think working full-time on Open Source issues of my own choice may be in my future. I'm not sure when, but am reasonably sure I could get that funded now.

Bruce

Re:You're Fired! (an ego problem?)

[Bruce Perens]

SPI and Debian have always been a home of personalities and strongly-held opinions, and I have no shortage of either :-) . But for me, this was really a matter of where I can and can't put my time. Raising my son is #1. After that, there's the most important issues of Open Source at the moment - and I judge the software patenting problem to be the biggest of those right now. SPI and Debian, unfortunately, are lower on my list. So, no, I should not have run.

Ever hear me on the air? Not much time for ham radio right now, either. I made it to Dayton and turned down a position on the TAPR board. So much to do, so little Bruce. Sigh.

Re:Miswording

[Russ Nelson]

The problem wasn't that he missed the meetings. OSI has a policy that if you miss two meetings in a row without excuse, you can be removed from the board. You can MISS all the meetings you want, but you have to say why. SPI has a similar policy, and Bruce didn't follow it.

But more than that, Bruce made his election a referendum on changing SPI's role from organizing other projects to the role of an activist position against software patents. It's understandable that Bruce wants some place to stand to push his (our) agenda, but the SPI membership decided that the SPI board was not that place. I encouraged Bruce to start up a project underneath SPI, which advice he is yet to take.