On 2014-06-02, 4:42 AM, Gervase Markham wrote:
On 30/05/14 22:01, Justin Dolske wrote:
What's the goal of this "agreement"? That is, what problem is it
addressing or even just general purpose?
I think this is key. There are several possible purposes it could have:
1) legal purpose. (But this has been disclaimed as the purpose, and it's
not a document which requires a signature.)
2) expectation-setting/social-contract purpose. (But other communities
have social contracts which are stated as a set of encouraged
behaviours, rather than in the form this document puts them.)
3) inclusiveness purpose. (To make people feel part of something; but if
that's it, then the language needs a lot of change, as others have noted.)
4) ...? Are there other options?
While I share some of the concerns already aired about this agreement, I
think that it would be valuable to dig into the seam between options two
and three, there. It would be great to have something that discusses
what our principles mean when they're practiced day to day by our
community. A doc that not only speaks the community's expectations and
standards of inclusiveness, but that describes what a successful
relationship looks like, discusses what that can grow in to, and ties
these expectations, standards and practices back to the Manifesto in
some meaningful way could be a very powerful tool for engagement and a
valuable expression of our culture.
The general thrust of it, though, would have to be much less about what
you can and can't do, and a lot more about what you can participate in,
what you could become, and why that work and growth matters.
Even more generally: we really need to stop playing defense on comms here.
The message about community membership shouldn't be a careful list of
what you can't do or we'll ask you not to, it should be "this is how
we're going to change the world, this is why it matters and this is how
you can be a part of it. When we hit a setback on something like EME we
should be trumpeting that the only reason this happens is because we're
not the biggest dog in that fight, and if you think we should be then
use Firefox and tell your friends why they should use Firefox. Every
time we write a FAQ about Directory Tiles or a press release that
doesn't end with a link to the Manifesto and a call to the barricades
we're missing an opportunity, and other people have tried to make these
points for us - these are the stakes, this is the world we want, this is
why it matters and this is why your help matters - but we haven't. And
we need to turn that around, and soon.
- mhoye
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