On 5/10/06, Martin Aspeli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Thu, 11 May 2006 00:29:17 +0100, Alec Mitchell
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Alec,
I agree completely with everything you're saying. However, I'd add ...
> We all agree that there are a lot of great thing we should do, and
> need to do in the long and short term. But your job as the framework
> team is to make a realistic assessment of what we can actually get
> done in a 6 month time frame given the available resources. What
> Alfresco is doing and what customers are looking for in a CMS is at
> most a peripheral consideration for you guys, and should rarely be a
> factor in any FT decision (the only cases where it would be are when
> there are two proposals of equal viability that are competing for the
> same developer resources).
... that the contributors who need encouragement look to some sort of
leadership. That normally falls to limi, but I think that by virtue of the
importance that the community has bestowed upon the framework team, we
can't be ignorant that people expect us to play a certain role. That is,
we may decide our role is purely technical, but so long as the rest of the
community don't see it that way, this is just wishful thinking.
I think it very much is the role of the framework team, the release
manager, and of all the core, senior or long-standing contributors, to
cheerlead, to suggest, to communicate loudly that we really *want* this
and that it *must* be done before such-and-such a date. It's a fallacy to
believe we can be totally objective, because we also put our blood, sweat
and tears into the software, we also depend on it for our jobs, and we
also have a vision of what we think Plone should be.
It's naive to think either that contributors will manage to align
themselves without a lot of explicit cheerleading, suggestion or creation
of a shared sense or purpose and urgency, or that they won't expect the
team that are tasked with the final decision on what goes in and out (by
which I mean the framework team and the release managager) to actively
participate in that process. There's also an unfortunate expectation that
limi will do all this - he's not capable of that, neither for the time it
takes, nor for his understanding of every technical detail in every area.
Whether it's wearing the framework team hat or not at any given point in
time is moot. This list may be semi-private, but when people see posts
about good or bad ideas from you, as release manager, or me, the
spokesperson[1], or Hanno, Raphael, Helge, Vincenzo, Wichert or Rocky,
they'll listen. And I, for one, also expect and want to see posts telling
me that now would be a good time to get myself in gear, or else it'll be
too late, and that this is important and we need to call for more
volunteers.
We have a responsibility to communicate outwardly as well as among
ourselves, because we are given the task of making real decisions that
will affect Plone profoundly at the turn of each release. At least I think
we should have. :)
I also agree with everything that you are saying, with the
clarification that such cheerleading is done by each team member
individually, just as it may be done by any other active member of the
community (though it of course might carry more weight coming from an
FT member), and is done with an agenda set by that member personally.
The team should not really be making official decisions about which
PLIPs to encourage, and no members of the team are required to do such
cheerleading (though it is hoped that all of you have enough interest
in some particular features to help move them forward).
Alec
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