On Dec 18, 2005, at 11:59 AM, Paolo Amoroso wrote: > Peter Seibel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >> I expect www.lispniks.com to be the main home for information about >> CL Gardeners, what we're about, what projects we're working on, etc. > [...] >> on the mailing list. Thus I think the ALU Wiki can be used as a tool >> for interested folks to collaboratively develop a proposal for a CLG >> project. I suspect these pages should have a short and standard > [...] >> of attack. When the project seems reasonably well defined the folks >> who want to work on it should send mail to the mailing list so the >> project can be added to the official CLG Projects page on >> www.lispniks.com and the ALU page can be deleted or kept as a shared >> notebook for the folks working on the project. > > Let me see whether I understand correctly your proposed process. > > I would like to help with the "Fixing ASDF-INSTALLable packages" > project: > > http://wiki.alu.org/Fixing_ASDF-INSTALLable_packages > > I am studying John Wiseman's list of packages with ASDF-INSTALL > problems to see what I can do. Then I will do the work, possibly with > the help of other gardeners, collect all information and fixes, and > submit the material upstream. I have added a sample to do entry to > section "Team members" of the above page. The entry may fill too much > space, feel free to edit it. > > When the project is well defined (for appropriate values of well > defined, e.g. when a critical mass is reached[*]), the involved > gardeners will apply for a CLG project page on www.lispniks.com and > start the work. Such a page may then be used for reporting progress > and other related information. > > Is this the process you mean? Any comments?
Something like that. It's all still somewhat vague in my head. FWIW, here are the problems I want the process to solve: - I want people who want to do work to be able to get down to it easily. So I don't to put in place a bunch of procedural hoops to jump through. - In order for the CL Gardeners to build a reservoir of good will among other Lispers I'd like to avoid having people running off completely willy-nilly claiming to be doing stuff as part of CL Gardeners. - Also in order to build good will for our project I'd like to be able to demonstrate that we actually get stuff done. So based on trying to solve those problems simultaneously I think something like what you outlined is a good start. Here's how I look at it: you are acting as the "champion" for this project. It's now up to you to define the problem that you are setting out to solve and explain what needs to be done and to recruit however other many other gardeners you think it'll take to at least start work. I think all of that can happen on the ALU Wiki. Then when you think you've got the problem and the approach well defined you can submit it to the list where the "steering committee"[1] (need a better name for that) can vote Apache style on whether to "bless" it as an official CL Gardeners project. Assuming it is approved we'll put something on the CL Gardeners web site describing the project, who's working on it, when it was started, and how we'll know it's done (if appropriate). Then, in theory, the gardeners who wanted to work on it will go off and do the work and when they're done we'll update the CLG website to reflect that and chalk up another victory. If the steering committee doesn't approve it then the champion and team can a) go back and try and fix up whatever problems the committee pointed out b) give up c) break off and do the project anyway, just without the blessing of the CL Gardeners. I hope that most projects that don't get blessed the first time around will end up in the a) category because the steering committee should only reject a proposal because they think it is unlikely to succeed as defined and should have provided some feedback about how to improve the proposal. In some cases the "champion" may be sufficiently experienced to completely define a project and get it going. In other cases someone may want to champion a project but need to recruit more experienced Lispers to help define the project in a way that the steering committee is likely to approve. And of course asking the steering committee folks to to help with the problem definition is totally fine. So to step back a bit for the sake of other folks itching to get a project going, it probably will in general work like this: - On the mailing list folks can brainstorm about stuff we might do. - Once someone feels like they have a concrete idea about something to do they can create a page on the ALU describing the something. At that point they are the champion of that project. - They can then continue discussing the project on the mailing list and recruiting volunteers there but the actual evolving project definition should be captured on the Wiki page. (We can also create per-project mailing lists for projects with lots of volunteers.) - Other folks interested in working in the same area can either a) join up with the champion and help define the project, b) wait until the project is defined and volunteer to work on it, or c) start working on their own overlapping proposal. Option (c) needn't be acrimonious--sometimes it might be easier for two people with slightly different ideas to simply each go their own way and slice up the problem their own way rather than bickering. In the end their projects will probably turn out to be different enough to both be blessed or, once the projects are better defined, the champions may realize they can actually work together. Anyway, let's try this procedure for our Fixing ASDF Installable packages project and then tweak it as necessary. -Peter [1] The "steering committee" are the folks who have been given "votes that count" in the Apache +1/0/-1 voting scheme. At the moment that's Brad Beveridge. And I think he nominated me so maybe the two of us are it at the moment. And as we go along and folks start doing work we'll elect more people to the committee. And in the meantime anyone on the list can express their preference by putting their +1/0/-1 vote in on any question (though -1's have to be accompanied by an explanation or counterproposal); it's just that the final "official" blessing is determined by the votes of the steering committee. -- Peter Seibel * [EMAIL PROTECTED] Gigamonkeys Consulting * http://www.gigamonkeys.com/ Practical Common Lisp * http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/ _______________________________________________ Gardeners mailing list [email protected] http://www.lispniks.com/mailman/listinfo/gardeners
