Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-project (930 mails)

[Andreas Jaeger <aj@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thursday 17 June 2010 12:05:17 Vincent Untz wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Le jeudi 17 juin 2010, à 11:34 +0200, Andreas Jaeger a écrit :
> > http://en.opensuse.org/index.php?title=Documents/Strategy/Community
> > contains the following statement that we'd like to discuss and enhance
> > as written in the introductory email
> > (http://news.opensuse.org/2010/06/17/a-strategy-for-
> > the-opensuse-project-proposals-and-discussions/),
> >
> > Andreas
>
> Looks like a good start!
>
> A general comment first: is this a statement that will stay valid for,
> say, 5 years? Or just a statement that is valid now, while we're
> discussing the strategy?

Valid for let's say 5 years.

> I'm asking this because if it's the former, some things might need to be
> reworded ("Establish the openSUSE Foundation" will be done at some
> point, so that won't be a goal anymore...)

It's an activity we should do during those years.  Once it's done, we can 
change it to "run the foundation" ;)
 
> > We are the openSUSE Community - a friendly, welcoming, vibrant, and
> > active community. This includes developers, testers, writers,
> > translators, usability experts, artists, promoters and everybody else
> > who wishes to engage with the project.
> >
> > To grow the openSUSE Community, we will put contributors first and focus
> > on
> >
> > the following activities:
> >     * Build a lively and active community
> >     * Increase contributor visibility
> >     * Attract contributions by empowering our community to influence and
> >     shape
> >
> > the Project in all aspects
> >
> >     * Make contributing easy by eliminating or greatly reducing
> >     bureaucratic
> >
> > obstacles and having great governance
> >
> >     * Market the Project
> >
> > This includes the following activities in order to excel in our goals:
> >     * Create tools that support community activities
> >     * Establish the openSUSE Foundation
>
> (see my first comment)
>
> >     * Improve visibility through announcements, news, blogs, tweets, etc
> >     * Give presentations about the Project
>
> What kind of presentations? At events (what kind of events?)? On the
> web? Or do we want to keep this deliberately vague to cover all types of
> presentations?

Yes, it was kept vague as a high-level description.  We had in mind events but 
the vague description helps here to let you think broader ;)
 
> >     * Establish Events: Conference organization
>
> Is this item about the organization of the openSUSE conference or about
> something else? It's unclear, so clarifying might be good :-)

Yes, openSUSE conference.
 
> >     * Emphasize the value of communication and recognize cultural
> >     diversity
> >
> > within our community
>
> This goal sounds great, but, hrm, what does it mean in practice? :-) Do
> we have any concrete example of how we would achieve this? (It sounds
> more like a value than a goal to me)

That's what we need to discuss here ;)
 
> >     * Foster governance discussions
>
> (same comment as for openSUSE Foundation: once we have a good governance
> model, this will be less of a goal, I guess)

Yes, so it would then change to e.g. "live good governance"
 
> >     * Mentor new contributors
> >     * Praise contributors (Publicity, bounties, ...)
>
> I think just "Praise contributors" would be enough. I'm specifically
> wondering about the bounties here. Do we have bounties?

Bounties was an idea for an example of doing it but we don't have them now.
 
> > We will also do the following activities:
> >     * Events: Attend shows, set up booths, have openSUSE Community rooms
> >     * Raise funds for the Project through the openSUSE Foundation
> >     * Helping new users and contributors
>
> The "contributors" part here sounds redundant with the "Mentor new
> contributors" from above.

Vincent, we should add you to our wordsmith department ;)
 
> >     * Encourage technical discussions (via mailing lists and forums)
> >     * Give presentations about the Project
>
> Hrm, we have this one in the first list already ;-)

 
> >     * Publications, whitepapers, ... in journals
>
> To be honest, I'm unsure about this one: it seems to me that the one
> below (reaching out to key people) is way more important. Are we already
> doing some of this today? If not, I'm not sure it's worth investing
> efforts in starting doing this.
>
> >     * Reaching multiplicators (journalists, key comm members, ...)
> >     * Customer intelligence (Surveys, segmentation, update statistics,
> >     ...)
>
> I don't like the term "customer" for a project like ours: we're not

Yep.

> selling anything, and it gives some false impression. Maybe "audience"?

 
> > Note that we are very well aware that anything we do depends on the
>
> Remove "Note that" :-) Maybe also remove "very well": it doesn't sound
> right in such a statement.
>
> > willingness of our community to drive it and make it successful. The
> > openSUSE Community Board sees its leadership role in making coherent
> > proposals and driving community decisions -- not in just taking
> > decisions on behalf of the community.
>
> I wouldn't say "The board sees its role" but "The role of the board is",
> especially since this statement is from the community as a whole, not
> just from the board. (And saying "the board sees" might imply a new
> elected board could have a different opinion here)
>
> > Note that openSUSE has evolved from it's initial launch with little
>
> Remove "Note that" :-)
> s/it's/its/
>
> > participation to being now a real open source project. It has many
> > sponsors
>
> (I'd remove "now" -- it doesn't bring anything useful, and will sound
> weird in 3 years)
>
> Ah, not sure I should open this can of worms, but... open source or free
> software?

FOSS/FLOSS ;)
 
> > including Novell as main sponsor. The sponsors are part of the Project
> > and will support it in various ways but not control the project.
> > openSUSE being an
>
> The last part reads a bit weird. I'd add a "will": "but will not control"
>
> > open source project means that everybody in the community can contribute
> > equally to it in all aspects of the project and should not depend on any
> > of the sponsors doing everything.
>
> > We'd like to cite as well from the openSUSE Guiding Principles:
> I'd change this to: "Finally, this quote from the openSUSE Guiding
> Principles summarizes the values of our project:" (or something
> similar). This explains why we have that quote here, instead of just
> saying "we'd like to" without explaining why :-)
>
> >   We value respect for other persons and their contributions, for
> >   other opinions and beliefs. We listen to arguments and address
> >   problems in a constructive and open way. We believe that a diverse
> >   community based on mutual respect is the base for a creative and
> >   productive environment enabling the project to be truly
> >   successful. We don't tolerate social discrimination and aim at
> >   creating an environment where people feel accepted and safe from
> >   offense.

Thanks,
Andreas
-- 
 Andreas Jaeger, Program Manager openSUSE,  aj@{novell.com,opensuse.org}
  Twitter: jaegerandi | Identica: jaegerandi
   SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg)
    Maxfeldstr. 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany
     GPG fingerprint = 93A3 365E CE47 B889 DF7F  FED1 389A 563C C272 A126