Guest Editorial

Top-Down Organization
What is Fido's true structure?
Douglas Myers 1:270/720
doug@mdtnbbs.com

The bad news is that the Zone 1 Coordinator election process appeared to be stalled. The good news is that Andrea Santos' probing questions have elicited sincere discussions in the Z1C echo from at least two Regional Coordinators. The bad news is that there is still no firm schedule nor details concerning the election available. The good news is that the consensus is that the election won't "fall through the cracks."

An sidebar to the conversation caught my attention, and seemed to me to have more significance than the timing of the election. I was, at first, appalled when Dallas Hinton - himself a likely candidate for the Z1C slot - mentioned that the identity of the Z1C was of little significance to the "average node." It was hard to fault what he actually said... he was just pointing out that most Fido nodes won't be adversely affected if it takes a little time to select a new ZC... but my first reaction was that the statement smacked of elitism.

Upon further reflection, though, his view of the "average node" is totally consistent with the view of Fidonet as a "top-down" structure. The "top-down" view assumes that most of the authority is concentrated in the top positions. Contrast this to the viewpoint of many of the individuals who feel that Fidonet should be democratized - essentially a "bottom-up" structure. How did we come to hold these two viewpoints of Fido?

Ironically, many in Fido hole both viewpoints simultaneously. I've often wondered how the same people who expect coordinators to act as mere nodelist clerks will also blame them for a lack of leadership. We, as a net, seem to want democracy simultaneously with strong central authority.

The next Zone Coordinator will face a truly daunting task - he'll face twin demands to dispatch issues with the strong resolution usually found only in tyrants, and yet be called upon to determine and act upon the consensus of those vaguely-defined "average nodes." The next Zone Coordinator is best advised to get to know these "average nodes," for he'll find that he can only derive power from the Regional Coordinators who select him. True authority must come from the "average nodes," whether they're paying attention or not.