Quoth Christel Dahlskjaer (on Thursday, the 14th of September):
On Thu, 2006-09-14 at 20:25 +0200, Peter Gantner (nephros) wrote:
Quoth Christel Dahlskjaer (on Thursday, the 14th of September):
At this point I only wish to comment on one particular bit,
I am quite disappointed that you are having a meeting to discuss your
roles when the task agreed at our meeting was that you would all
individually write down what you wished to see yourself doing.
It is not exclusively about the role.
There is also the fact that at the previous two meetings many of us were
missing.
I would ask then that all user representatives e-mail me individually
with their personal view on how they see this role used by Saturday
15:00UTC I know that is pushing it a week back, as you had originally
been given two weeks to complete that task, however, I would like to see
the individual responses before they are discussed.
Allright, see below for a quickly hacked-together draft.
Peter
==========================================================================
Opinion on the role and mode of operation of User Representatives
-- nephros, 2006-09-14
==========================================================================
!) Introduction and overall Vision
----------------------------------
I wrote in the small piece I sent in for the election page:
| Why would I take the job of User Representative? I have been pondering
| this a bit and I think my main goal should be to make this position
| obsolete.
| I think the creation of this position is a symptom of a problem Gentoo
| has, not an aid or a solution. There is a disconnection felt between
| "official" Gentoo (devs) and and "the user base" (everybody else)
| where there should be none. Proposed was a process to improve
| relations but what should be done is to change the mindset or vision
| of the people involved to remove that very need.
I believe that to be true, and it is a thing wich I really don't like about
Gentoo. But removing this is a vision and as such not very helpful to define
a way of working. It should be and remain an ultimate goal though.
!!) Mode of operation and goals
-------------------------------
As for the mode of operation, I am thinking along the lines of this:
*) Users-to-Gentoo Process
..........................
This should be a continuous process with the appropriate amount of feedback
and -channels between everybody envolved.
Stage 1) Userrep Combing
The thing I think we all agree will happen; URs keep a close look at all the
different input sources from the community, namely f.g.o, gentoo-user (and
other) MLs, various IRC channels, personal mails, personal brainfarts etc. and
of course developer input.
Stage 2) Submission
Results from combing are digested (by contacting user(s) and other
preliminary research) by the discovering userrep and then submitted a in more
or less formal way to the:
Stage 3) Userrep Think Tank
(most likely a Wiki, but could be Forum, ML , issue tracker or other)
The centralized repository for all ongoing UR projects, where all the digested
input from the various sources is kept, discussed, researched and updated.
Feasibility is studied, input from related developers is sought, users are
encouraged to provide constructive contributions, etc etc.
Maybe a "Feature voting booth" of some sort is kept there to help understand
and present user demand.
Declined proposals (including rationale of the rejection) are also kept in a
prominient place to reduce redundancy.
Basically issues are boiled a bit with the goal to produce a:
Stage 4) Userrep Report to the Gentoo Project
A detailed sketch including description, rationale and implementation plan is
presented
to the developer community through some kind of formalized announcement.
This might take the form of a GLEP, or something completely different depending
on the issue at hand.
Responses from Gentoo are taken back to Stage 3 for refinement until the issue
is either finally rejected or adoped by Gentoo in an appropriate form (like a
feature implementation, official GLEP, subproject etc)
This sums up the User-to-Gentoo branch of userrep operations.
*) Gentoo-to-Users Process
..........................
I am a bit unsure what this might entail, this branch of operations would very
much depend on the kind of developer requests. It will in any case be a
reactive mode of operating, i.e. Userreps will have to be prompted by devs to
start some kind of project.
Through unofficial status URs are free to reject any kind of request freely
here. See also Non-Goals.
I suppose things that can happen here are research of user demands and
acceptance of existing features, and everything that comes from the process
described above. This might include things which get very close to actual
development.
We're here to help out after all.
!!!) Non-Goals
--------------
Just including this section because it sometimes helps to define non-goals as
well. List is not to be considered exhaustive ot authorative.
*) PR
That's what the Gentoo userrel PR project is for ;)
As such URs will not be addressees of blame or laud, harbringers of bad news
etc.
URs are however responsible to help to establish and improve channels to reach
the community (or the other way around) with things like these.
*) User Support
While many or all of the URs do provide user support on a regular basis, it is
not a
responsibility or requirement for UR. It is probably the best way to keep
informed though.
*) Firefighters
Basically, your fuckup, your flamefest.
URs are however responsible to help to establish and improve channels for
the flames to reach dev community, or for various types of coolant to reach
the users. ;)
--
Gentoo is like IKEA -- only stable.
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