Re: [gentoo-project] RFC: GLEP - Require Projects to report to Council Monthly

[Kent Fredric]

On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 13:45:39 -0500
"William L. Thomson Jr." <wlt-ml@××××××.com> wrote:

> I think that should be expanded as a require for a project. If a project is
> formed, it should be required to report on a monthly basis to the council. It
> does not have to meet monthly

I think this starts out with a wrong priority. 

The framing here is that this structure is a stick to keep everyone in line,
and that the beatings shall continue to drive up morale. 

Where I think the priority needs to focus on *facilitating* progress, by creating
systems that *empower* and *enable* clearer communication, like making sure that
the donkey has somewhere to sleep at night and has plenty of water so it can actually
do its job the next day, instead of hoping a stick or carrot can be a magical solution.

As such, a mandatory scheme that requires projects to report back to an authority
is distasteful.

I'd rather a more informal structure, where somebody is appointed the task of polling
the different projects and asking them questions like: 

- Is there anything the project needs
- Are there any changes you're doing now or in the future that would be useful
  for people to know about ( including other members of the project )

And I would take more concern if given projects couldn't be reached for commentary.

If a project can be reached for commentary, but has nothing specific to report back,
then that should be fine.

If a project doesn't need to declare a need for anything from other projects,
or doesn't care to inform other projects what its doing, that should be fine.

There would naturally be some conceptual overlaps here with the GLEP 42 gentoo
news system, and some overlap with the Gentoo newsletter, and so anything that
falls into either of those would be good examples of things to mention, and
ear-tag as such. ( Which may potentially facilitate those groups )

As an adjunct, it might also be useful to have some sort of active "status board"
for different projects that can be edited by anyone easily and can easily be displayed
in bulk, and not have any real requirements on its frequency of change.

For example, to an extent IRC /topic's are used in a limited fashion for this sometimes.

But it needs a little more space than whatever that limit is.

But it doesn't ( and shouldn't ) need a full blank web page, and should ideally
be no larger than a moderate but concise git commit message.

So probably somewhere less painful to deal with than a wiki would be nice.

But this status board can help inform the person doing the polling and
others in a slightly more immediate fashion, not bound by clock cycles,
but by necessity.

And for groups who want to bother to sit down and have meetings,
brief outcomes from those meetings could be part of that status board,
perhaps with longer contents in links.