At the PlanB conference in El Salvador, Jon Atack, Bitcoin Core developer and BIP editor, gave a presentation about Bitcoin Core governance. The full title of the presentation is "Bitcoin Code Governance: What's Really Been Happening - and What You Can Do" but I had to shorten it so that it would fit in the title character limit.

So far, I don't think PlanB has posted a recording of it (I found a recording of their mainstage, but couldn't find one of the P2P stage where Atack was speaking).

Here is a transcription of the slides from the talk which was posted by @hodlonaut, as well as some pictures of the slides posted by Mechanic.

I'm hoping that PlanB puts up a recording at some point because it looks like it was a very interesting talk.

• Lead maintainer role: sets tone and leadership style, holds overall group together, arbitrates, makes decisions of last resort, source of inspiration, now gone.
• Constant changes of core maintainers over time
• Individuals around the world (Holland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Germany, Belgium, Australia) -> centralized offices in NYC/London/SF
• Leadership transition (OGs -> ?)
• Where are the cypherpunks/sovereign individuals, the replacements of wumpus/sipa/gmax/aj stature?
• Selection criteria in the new developer pipeline (baseball training league -> CL)
• Cultural change -> Americanization (NYC/SF) -> woke politics -> DEI - untouchables
• Maintainer power/influence ("janitorial" myth), dynastic effects, burnout -> jury duty with regular rotation?
• Power clique / King Court / Ant Colony / Core Commitburo / Hierarchies -> affects one's ability to contribute and progress
• Covid schism 8/15 during 2020-2022
• The Warmth of Collectivism, groupthink, wagons circling, gaslighting
• How maintainers are chosen, and risks of questioning a "nomination"
• Increased opacity in communications: public IRC meetings/ discussions -> private working groups
• Meeting changes: from ad hoc to process (to make it easier to run meetings)
• Process -> Code of Conduct -> 2 dedicated moderators -> they are between a rock and a hard place to protect the powerful, not the weak
• Social signals and success factors in opening a PR, correlation merge ratio and contributor satisfaction/longevity