I'm glad Ghee brought this up again. I mentioned it shortly before the election 8 months ago that the process for obtaining contributor/core contributor status is opaque and appears to be inconsistent. For example I assumed that QA wasn't a recognized category of "contribution", but then I noticed that Ghee (who has certainly contributed opensolaris desktop code) doesn't yet have even contributor status. Also, how is it that you Stephen are a member of OGB but don't yet have core contributor status?
A few months ago it was forgivable that the whole process is a bit cracked, but I fear we are getting to the point where real contributors will begin to turn away because they aren't recognized for their contributions. I propose the very first step should be to add a brief description of contributions to the grant for individuals with "contributor" or "core contributor" status on the http://opensolaris.org/viewProfile.jspa?username={} page. At least then those who don't have this status can clearly see what kind of activities are recognized as contributions. For example it appears that the individual who advocated dissolution of a Solaris community isn't associated with or leader of any projects or communities but does have a core contributor grant. If there is a way for cross community contributions to be recognized, it should be documented. For what it's worth, I would recommend that Stephen Lau and most of the desktop development and QA teams should be granted at least contributor status. Their work within the Gnome community might not contribute code directly into ON, but they do manage to contribute even if it is only as a voice in the Gnome community which says, "not everyone is running your desktop on GNU/Linux!" every time someone suggests that another linuxism be irrevocably bound into what should be a multi-platform desktop. But I'm neither a contributor nor a core contributor, I just work here. Stephen Lau wrote: > Ghee Teo wrote: > >> +1. Welcome Albert! >> >> While on the topic, I like to raise a discussion on the formation of >> contributors >> and core contributors for the desktop communities. Starting with some >> questions: >> - Community leaders - are they the same as core contributors? >> > Initially yes, but now - not so much. Community leader (from the > webpage term) just means having the ability to edit webpages. You can > and should feel free to dole this out as you see fit, i.e. if a > volunteer wants to update webpages, she or he can be made a "community > leader" without a (core) contributor grant also being given. > >> - Where are the list of desktop contributors? >> (I know there was a list put up for election of OGB) Should they not >> be placed >> on the community page? Creating a list of core contributors and >> contributors >> for each some communities may help new comers to ping these people for >> involvement. >> > http://poll.opensolaris.org > >> - While all of the desktop team in Sun are contributing to desktop >> projects in one >> way or another, very few are being acknowledged as contributors or >> even core >> contributors. One can argue that they got paid anyway and have access >> to the svn >> etc. But that is wrong approach I think. Without the acknowledgment, >> some people >> will do the minimum while others will definitely have no incentive of >> doing more. >> > Certainly they should have at least Contributor status. I would hope > all Core Contributors are at least participating on the open mailing > lists, and open projects. > >> - Also there is a growing awareness from the management within Sun to >> identify >> open source experience and contribution, formalizing the list of core >> contributors and >> contributors is the win-win thing to do now. >> >> > Agreed > >> Before we get into the details who/how one is acknowledged to be a >> core/contributers, >> do I get buy in from existing core/contributors to formalize this? :) >> > I'm not a (core) contributor, but this sounds reasonable to me. > > Glynn: Will you take care of giving Albert his contributor grant? > > cheers, > steve > >
