Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Roy Bamford <neddyseagoon@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Who is willing to be lead?
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:23:38
Message-Id: 1271067793.3147.0@NeddySeagoon
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] Who is willing to be lead? by Markos Chandras
1 On 2010.04.10 15:00, Markos Chandras wrote:
2 > On Saturday 10 April 2010 16:53:48 Petteri Räty wrote:
3 > > As people seem to want the council to take action I offer to take
4 > > action. As it's impossible for me to do everything myself I offer
5 > to
6 > act
7 > > as a project manager/owner for people willing to donate their time
8 > to
9 > > whatever I see worthy for Gentoo as whole like the web page
10 > redesign.
11 > > Basically you tell me how many hours you have and I'll give you
12 > stuff to
13 > > work on. It might not be glorious at times like cleaning up a piece
14 > of
15 > > documentation but why not spend an hour a week on something that
16 > > benefits the project? If people are interested, I'll work out the
17 > details.
18 > >
19 > > Regards,
20 > > Petteri
21 > That's not a good reaction from your side. Independent projects can
22 > handle the
23 > incoming manpower themselves.
24 >
25 [snip]
26 > --
27 > Markos Chandras (hwoarang)
28 > Gentoo Linux Developer
29 > Web: http://hwoarang.silverarrow.org
30 >
31
32 There are two valuable non conflicting ideas here. The second one is
33 more obvious, so I'll address that first an show how it fits with the
34 other.
35
36 "Independent projects" Gentoo is an assemblage of independent projects
37 all pretty much doing their own thing ... the council exists to
38 "handle global issues" [glep39]
39 This implies that the council works on things brought to its
40 attention, further its purpose is not to 'lead' (whatever that might
41 mean), rather its the glue that holds the independent projects
42 together when they can't resolve things for themselves.
43
44 The problem with this structure is that the independent projects have
45 gaps/overlaps between them. Overlaps normally indicate wasted effort,
46 gaps indicate something missing that does not fit into the existing
47 projects (at least, as far as the projects are concerned). The result
48 is that the gaps are not addressed.
49
50 Petteri, writes "I offer to take action". That's an offer from an
51 individual Gentoo developer, not on behalf of the council. It doesn't
52 matter how Petteri came to form his view that a lot of small tasks can
53 make Gentoo better for being organised. It need not encroach on the
54 independent projects at all.
55
56 Gentoo has got to the social complexity now that it needs some middle
57 management. The council is not permitted to provide that and Petteri
58 has offered to try.
59
60 Its really no different to putting up a project page and starting a new
61 project.
62
63 This could be a new way to get non-devs involved too. Give them a small
64 well defined package of work to contribute ...
65
66 I see it in a positive light but I don't think I can offer any time at
67 the moment.
68
69 --
70 Regards,
71
72 Roy Bamford
73 (Neddyseagoon) a member of
74 gentoo-ops
75 forum-mods
76 trustees