[kevincox]

The main problem with a structure like this is that when individual project maintainers go AFK the project grinds to a halt without a clear way to start it back up.

As a simple example gnome-characters is way behind on Unicode. Luckily there is a script to import the data dump, however it also should have some code updates to support things like skin tone. However different parts have been done with no maintainer response. It isn't clear where one can go to try to find a new maintainer or at least someone who can help manage changes for now until a new maintainer can be trusted.

And it comes back to the question, what is the GNOME project if it is mostly a bunch of self-governed individual projects. Is GNOME just hosting infrastructure to make these projects possible? It is clear that it is more than just that.

So I guess this grass-roots power structure is nice when everything is going well. But maybe a clear "executive" structure would be helpful for herding the individual projects from time to time.