The problem isn't simply that open source has feudal governance; it's that only decentralizing technology reproduces the same old hierarchy under a different name. The #Fediverse gives us a chance to build something better, but decentralization alone isn't democracy.
Feudalism in code is still feudalism.
Four years ago I was arguing that feudalism was a poor model of governance for #opensource and #freesoftware. That argument hasn't aged out. Too often, decision-making still rests with project founders, core developers, instance admins, funders and the people who control the infrastructure. Everyone else gets a voice only when those above them choose to listen.
This is the weakness in much of the current path. We have built copy's of corporate platforms, but carried over their top-down assumptions: gatekeepers, personality politics, informal hierarchies and governance by whoever happens to hold the hard coded roles..
Stepping away from this is what we're exploring with #OGB - putting horizontal governance into practice and, where possible, into the code itself.
The #Fediverse is a be a place to try this. But it won't happen by magic.
