River future direction

[Patricia Shanahan]

I would like to start a discussion of future direction for the River 
project, and whether we have the right resources to get there.

Recently, I have been trying to push improving the "Getting Started" 
experience in the hope of attracting and keeping new users who may turn 
into committers. I am not sure what to do next to make that happen. I 
feel we may have a problem of not having enough committer time to get 
more committers.

I do have some free time, but not quite the right skills. When I got 
involved in River I expected to be working on Java programming for 
refactoring, performance enhancement, and multithread/multiprocessor 
issues. Writing good "Getting Started" materials calls for actual River 
expertise and experience, which I lack.

I have about five weeks before I need to file my next board report. I 
would like to use that time to build a consensus on where we are going, 
and whether we need help from outside the project.

Patricia