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Pardon the delay in sending this folks- been playing w/ the wording a |
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bit more than I should've. |
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Feel free to ask whatever question's you'd like answered- I'll keep a |
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copy of the manifesto at |
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http://pkgcore.org/~ferringb/council-manifesto-2010.txt which will be |
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updated as needed for typo's and point clarifications. |
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Manifesto follows- |
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For those who don't know me, these days I work as a Distro Engineer, although |
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over the last decade I've ran the gamut from basic embedded to web monkey to |
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running OPs. Been a bit varied. |
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For gentoo specifically, I've been active since mid 2003- same thing, my work |
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has been a bit all over the map- split the first prefix branch, created EAPI, |
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wrote the distfiles mirror content manager, founded/wrote pkgcore, and done a |
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fair amount of portage work. Intermixed with that is a similar all over the |
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map involvement in the tree, although these days my main interest/focus on |
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the tree is QA. |
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The point of this brag sheet is twofold; |
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1) I've got a pretty wide amount of technical experience to bring to the |
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council (ranging from infra to imaging to simple ebuilds to explicit knowledge |
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of package manager internals) |
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2) When something isn't getting done, I jump in and *get it done* rather than |
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letting it sit. Simplest example, I want the git migration plan finished- |
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since robin was overloaded and no one was doing it, I chipped in the work |
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I could do (optimization of the conversion so it wasn't a full day outage). |
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My purpose in running for the council is to apply the same approach- with due |
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respect to the previous councils, there has been very little real activity |
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that has come from the council. Requests pushed up to them have been ignored |
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at the last minute (or without explanation), things have been voted on with |
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questionable understanding of the actual proposal, and generally, they've not |
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been incredibly useful. Finally, things have passed through the council with |
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very little relation to reality. |
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What I expect of the council, and will push w/in the council if elected is |
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simply the principles of accountability and getting things done. |
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Some examples of changes I'd like to see within the council- |
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1) Staggered elections- 2 elections a year, for example 3 council members in |
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the summer, 4 in winter. The purpose of this is purely accountability- if the |
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current council is abdicating their responsibilities, we aren't waiting a |
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year, the council's feet are continually held to the fire. This additionally |
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provides stability instead of the jarring once a year swap of the full |
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council. Finally note that if this were accepted, to make it easier to get |
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implemented I'd willingly go through an early election (would just need 2 other |
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council members for it to be pulled off in that case). |
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2) While hard to enforce (let alone define rules for), sanctions/early |
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election proceedings for members who repeatedly don't read the reference |
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materials for what they're going to be discussing that month. It wastes |
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everyones time, and it stalls decisions yet another month. Pretty much |
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I believe that if you want to be a council member you better be willing to do |
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the work. If you won't/can't, then don't run, simple as that. |
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Please also note that #1 and #2 require community vote to actually accomplish |
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also- I'm listing them since these are changes I'd like to see (and quite |
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likely the process of getting that vote has to go through the council also). |
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3) Figuring out a way to get the council meeting and making decisions more |
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frequently then once a month, for a single hour. We should strive to do more |
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than just the mininum specified in glep39. |
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4) Proposals brought forth to the council need an actual plan of |
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implementation- by opensources nature, the council cannot just say "go |
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implement EAPI4"- we're all volunteers. Via requiring people to have at least |
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the semblence of a plan (including patches/devs attached to it), this will |
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allow things to go faster, decisions made by the council to actually become |
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reality within the year. |
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5) On the flipside, the council should be actively trying to help w/ the |
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things it thinks should go through- if the council thinks the web redesign |
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should go through, actively searching for folk to help, tracing down what |
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has been done, what needs doing, etc. In this respect the council should be |
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active rather than passive- if the ball is being dropped, they should be |
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trying to track it and get it back on course. |
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Now I wish I could promise voters that if I were elected, all of these things |
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would be accomplished- I won't blindly promise things that I cannot gurantee. |
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I can only promise to bring this approach to the council if elected. |
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Finally please understand that while I am critical of preceeding councils, |
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I don't wish to completely tear down what they have accomplished. To improve |
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and move forward requires taking a hard but realistic look at what has led to |
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this point- hopefully I've managed just that in my manifesto. |