OpenOffice.org is a truly international community, yet our annual conference (OOoCon) has always been in Europe. That doesn’t feel right. This year we have attracted a record number of proposals (six) to host OOoCon, yet we are proposing to continue a simple ‘vote for your favourite location’ first past the post (FPTP) ballot. That doesn’t seem right either.

Why? Let’s say that this year 80% of the people planning to attend OOoCon can travel anywhere in Europe, and 20% anywhere in Asia. The result which most voters would want would be to have a European location. However, if people only have one vote, then the 80% might split across five European locations, and Asia would win. Note: I’m not saying this is what will happen - just one hypothetical example. But overall there are more scenarios where FPTP gives the ‘wrong’ answer than where it gives the ‘right’ answer.

This is easily solved by changing the voting system to a method such as the Single Transferable Vote (STV) or the Instant Run-Off Vote (IRV), where each voter ranks the locations by preference 1 2 3 4… If I am only able to travel in Europe, I might vote Dundalk = 1, Amsterdam = 2, Budapest = 3, etc. In this way, we end up with a location which will not be everyone’s preferred choice, but which is an acceptable choice for the greatest number.

I put this to the Community Council yesterday, but there was a preference to stay with FPTP. The Beijing bid is seen as a means of solving the “always in Europe” issue. However, in the words of the old proverb, “two wrongs don’t make a right”. If we believe the Community should have the final say in where their Conference is held, we have a responsibility to provide a fair voting system. If we want to award OOoCon on other criteria, then we should have an honest and open debate in the Community.

But this year it looks like FPTP.

Note: growing pains are a good kind of pain to have…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 7:23 am and is filed under OpenOffice.org. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.