Biella's chapter six

I just finished reading the 70-odd pages of chapter six of (now Dr.) Biella Coleman's dissertation (what a word), a chapter which handles (mainly) about the Debian project.

It took me quite a few hours to do this, mainly because English is not my native language, and parts of the text go outside of the technical area in which I feel comfortable, mainly due to the fact that I've been involved with Debian for quite a while now; but also because the text is, at times, consisting of the (IMO) rather complex language that is typical of scientific texts.

Anyway, I must say I'm impressed. Not only has she very well understood and explained the internal culture in the Debian project; she also, and this surprised me, managed to explain things about our internal culture that even I—who's been part of this project for over four years now—had not understood myself; and the idea that crises such as the one around the Vancouver prospectus are necessary if painful, certainly holds some merit.

She certainly has a far better view on the general picture than I guess most of us can ever hope to have. Errors in the document, if any, will be in the little details -- such as the one in the final paragraph on page 20, which indirectly claims that our project secretary (the person who runs our votes) is either a team or a delegate. But those are details, and allowing those to throw a shadow over her accomplishment would be nitpicking.

Again, I'm impressed at her level of understanding; but then again, I guess that's what being an anthropologist is all about. I can only urge you to read it, if you haven't already.

Meantime, I'll consider adopting Yaarr as my nickname. Then again, maybe not.