I see different teams announce their team meetings in different ways and
suggest to discuss how to do it the best way - and document it.
Here's one proposal for this:
== Announcing Team Meetings ==
* Create a meeting page in the wiki to collect the agenda
* Add the meeting to http://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Meetings
* Get the meeting in the calendar on news.o.o - this way the openSUSE
Weekly News Team will add it to their calendar
* Announce it via opensuse-announce(a)opensuse.org and
news.o.o. for the first meeting or for special meetings
* Announce it on your team mailing list
* Good practice: Announce a preliminary agenda with topics for the
meeting and not only that it will take place
Right now we have both the wiki calendar in the meetings portal and the
news.o.o calendar, I propose to remove the wiki calendar and point to
news.o.o.
Thoughts on this?
Btw. - I would add the result of our discussion to
http://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Meetings,
Andreas
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Hi all,
Over the last weeks there has been a lot of disussion, both internally and
externally, about the strategies which have been proposed. However, we also
missed a lot of voices from our community. We take responsibility for leaving
many of you behind by focusing on a very corporate-management solution to the
initial question which prompted this process. A question we think still is
relevant: The identity of openSUSE both as a Community and as a Project.
Initially our goal was to answer: “Who is openSUSE and what does it (want to)
do?” prompted by the discussion about the default desktop at the openSUSE
conference last year. In five years the openSUSE project has evolved from a
fully company-driven project to a communty project where everybody can
contribute. This has brought uncertainty and a lack of direction. The current
lack of a clear ‘story behind it all’ is hampering our ability to establish a
common identity and sense of security. From a marketing point of view, it
becomes an uphill battle…
Throughout the process, we consulted some people and the discussion about a
strategy started with the goal to solve this issue. However, many feel that
‘strategy’ and the approach to find one is not fitting our community. We lost
most of you in the second paragraph of the strategy pages on the wiki – too
much talk.
We would like to go back to the start and focus on describing who we are, as a
community, instead of finding new ways to go. The input you all have given us
by mail, forums, IRC and in person was valuable and we will use that. So that
is what we will do:
* Highlight the story behind openSUSE
* Identify what users we target and illustrate what we offer to them,
* Connect it with the issues that matter most to our community
And then we will document this story, image, direction, strategy – or however
your call it ;) .
From you all – we will continue to seek your input on it once we post it. By
mail, forum, IRC or in person – again. Without your help it won’t be much, so
please think about that!
Greetings,
Your strategy team
P.S. Also posted at http://news.opensuse.org/2010/09/03/strategy-sucks/
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Folks,
SCALE (Southern California Linux Expo) Call for Papers is now open until
December 13, 2010. SCALE will be in Los Angeles February 25-27, 2011.
I would encourage anyone interested in giving talks about openSUSE to
submit their papers to this event. There's lots to talk about openSUSE,
so don't be shy!
Here's the link.
http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale9x/blog/scale-9x-call-papers
Also of interesting notice is that SCALE will offer tutorial sessions as
well. A suggestion for any OBS experts out there, perhaps we can
organize a tutorial session showing how to use OBS to package for
different distros, and not just openSUSE?
At some point in the coming months, we'll also see about setting up an
openSUSE booth and will welcome volunteers to support the booth.
Thanks,
Bryen M Yunashko
openSUSE Board Member
openSUSE Marketing Team lead
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Hi all!
Friday the 1st of October will be the deadline for requesting travel and hotel sponsorship requests for the openSUSE conference. We will notify those who will receive support next week, some have already had mail about their hotel. Please note that the budget is limited and we like to help those who need it most!
Greetings,
The conference peeps
Hi all,
As some might have read, today on news.opensuse.org the second part of the strategy new style went live. Let me compy some of that announcement:
Over the last week you have all given input on the new strategy document describing the target users of openSUSE. It saw quite a bit of rewriting and rephrasing but it seems the description fitted most of your perceptions. We have incorporated all the comments into the document and a new iteration can be found on co-ment.
Furthermore, the next piece of text has been added: "What does openSUSE offer its users?" [1] Like with "Target Users", we would really appreciate it if you could give your input on co-ment but we will accept any kind of input on any channel we can follow. So if co-ment isn't your thing, feel free to comment below this post, on the forums or anywhere else. For those new to co-ment - it is a pretty awesome commenting tool under the GNU Affero GPL[2].
Giving your input on co-ment [1] will make the discussion a bit more structured and easier for everyone to follow. How-to: select some text you want to comment on (a word, a few words, a sentence) and choose the little yellow + sign on the top-left of the page to add your comment. If you click a colored section of the text, you can see the comments which have been made to that section it and add your own voice to the discussion. Easy peasy!
See for reference the openSUSE Strategy portal [3] on the wiki. A copy of the current proposal is at the bottom of the mail. Please have fun!
Greetings,
Your strategy team
[1] https://lite.co-ment.com/text/lNPCgzeGHdV/view/
[2] http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/agpl-3.0.html
[3] http://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Strategy
The current proposal:
As with every other 'who are we' document, this one assumes our community statement [ http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Strategy_Community_Statement ].
Target users
==========
The target users of the openSUSE distribution are people who need to get work done and want something stable and usable for their every day needs. They are users who are interested in technology, willing to learn to adapt their computer environment if needed, capable of reading documentation and/or asking questions on forums. But also people who don't want to if they don't have to - good defaults save them time. In short, the technology-adept computer user or IT professional who is productivity-focused. This includes power users, developers, system administrators but also the typical office workers or students handy with computers. A convenient definition would be someone who has read a computer magazine or technology website once or twice and works with computers a lot. The default openSUSE does not target casual computer users. For them we have simplified Netbook editions and in a company they would run a SLED desktop configured by an administrator who uses openSUSE.
Our user wants control over his or her computing experience - but at the same time doesn't want to WASTE time - things should work out of the box while offering flexibility and configurability for when it is needed. And this user is empowered to help his or her favorite distribution - it is easy to contribute back to openSUSE and we make sure our users know this.
What openSUSE offers
==================
* We offer a powerful, stable core and let our community contribute other packages and tools through the Build Service: freedom and choice.
* We maintain our software for 18 months and allow a easy upgrade path
* We don't jump ship whenever something shiny comes along - users depend on our product so we only move when something is proven better
* But through our Build Service we offer the latest and greatest even for older releases in case our users needs it
* So we are actually the ONLY DISTRIBUTION having both stability and a fresh taste!
* a desktop system that works out of the box with good defaults but offers the needed flexibility and configurability
* Easy ways to change the defaults while administration the system and during the installation
* A great infrastructure to build upon including technologies like the build service, Kiwi and technology build upon those like SUSE Studio. Thanks to our build service, developers can easily provide users with their software, no matter what Linux distribution they use. And our users can easily contribute back to openSUSE.
* A product clearly NOT the result of NIH - we collaborate and cooperate with others, providing the best technology from around the Free Software ecosystem
* The option for commercial support from Novell by using SLES
In short, our philosophy is stable over shiny and powerful over dumb combined with innovative and flexible technology and an open mind for collaboration.
A month ago I presented my first draft for the new openSUSE board
election rules and received some good feedback, especially on the
opensuse-project mailing list. Since the last version presented on the
mailing list I reworked the draft some more taking into account the
proposal by Henne to remove the split of the elected seats into Novell
and non-Novell employees.
So, now the goal of the changes for these rules are:
* fill the holes that exist in the existing rules
* clarify the existing rules
* Open up the project even more with removing the restriction on
two members beeing Novell employees. To help ensure that the
board will always represent a wide part of the community, I've
followed the example of the GNOME foundation to have a rule that
only 40 % of the elected board members can work at the same
company.
Note that 40 % of 5 elected seats means 2 seats.
I'd like to thank Vincent Untz and Alan Clark who helped me with this revision
step.
Below is the new draft, for reference I gave each rule a name.
I'd like to hear now whether those complete rules are fine or where
they need further revision and I'd also like to see wordsmithing to
clarify and improve the rules.
I've published the rules also on
http://lizards.opensuse.org/2010/09/29/revising-the-board-election-rules-2n…
iteration/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Complete rules
There're too many changes now so that I don't mark additions/removals
anymore.
* Size: The board consists of six members: five seats are elected by
the community and additionally an appointed chairperson.
* Eligible candidates: Only openSUSE members may run for the Board.
Any previous board member that has previously resigned or has
been previously removed from the Board is not eligible for
nomination or appointment for or within the next Board election
period.
* Eligible voters: Only openSUSE members may vote, each member
having one ballot that has one vote per seat to be elected.
* Election Committee: The election is run by an Election Committee
that consists of at least three openSUSE members and gets appointed
for each election by the board.
None of the Election Committee can run for or be elected as an
openSUSE board member while serving on the Election Committee.
* Time length: The openSUSE board term is two years. Approximately
half of the board is elected every year. This means that every year,
the term of approximately half of the board ends, and the term of
the other half ends the year after.
To provide continuity to the organization the chairperson shall be
appointed and replaced at Novell's discretion. The elected board
members can appeal to Novell to have the chairperson replaced.
* Yearly electing half the board: In case of resignations or removals
occured since last elections, the term for elected board members for
the current elections will be adjusted to make sure that half of the
elected board seats - that means two out of five - will have to be
filled during the next elections.
To implement this adjustment, the elected seats with the most
votes will have a two years term, while the seats with the
lowest votes will have a one year term. The number of seats with
the lowest votes is calculated so that half of the board seats
will have to be filled during the next elections.
* Serving time: openSUSE board members can serve for up to two
consecutive election periods. After that they must stand down for at
least one year, but may be run again after the one year break.
* Resignation: A member of the board may resign their current position
by giving written notice to the chairperson.
* Removal: In the event of repeated absence without contact, or other
serious misconduct or negligence, a Board member may be subject to
removal. Before any other process occurs, the Board member in
question will be personally contacted by the chairperson to try to
resolve the situation. If this contact does not successfully resolve
the situation, the Board member in question may be removed by a vote
of 2/3s of the board members. The board should appoint a new board
member.
Repeated absence includes missing three consecutive board meetings
without sending regrets, not answering at all to emails or sending
regrets for more than 10 meetings.
* Appointment: The running board is allowed to appoint new members
during their term to fill a board vacancy caused by one of the
following conditions: 1) Resignation of a Board member or 2) the
removal of a Board member, or 3) as part of elections.
Appointed seats are only appointed until the next election.
Instead of opting to appointmore than one board member, the board
may opt to call for a new board election for the vacant seats.
* Company affiliation: To help ensure that the board will always
represent a wide part of the community, no single organization or
company will be allowed to control more than 40% of the elected or
appointed board seats, regardless of election results. In the event
that individuals affiliated with a corporation or organization hold
more than 40% of the seats, affiliates from that corporation will be
required to resign until 40% is no longer held.
Individuals affiliated with a company or organization are people who
are employees, officers, or members of the board of directors of an
organization; or have a significant consulting relationship; or own
at least 1% of the equity or debt, or derivatives thereof, of a
company.
Notwithstanding the above, members of the openSUSE board shall act
on behalf of all openSUSE contributors in the best interest of the
openSUSE project. Although board members may be affiliated with
companies that have an interest in the success of openSUSE, they
will not be considered representatives of companies with which they
are affiliated.
* Affiliation during election: If more than 40 % of the elected seats
would be affiliated with one company (as defined above), elections
results shall be adjusted as follows. Individuals who are affiliated
with the company which has an excess of representatives shall be
removed based on the number of votes they received until such
individuals no longer hold a majority of the seats on the
board. Other candidates shall replace them, based on the number of
votes they received.
* Nominations: The election committee will take self-nominations,
nominations by others and can nominate people for election. The
election committee will contact the nominated people and ask them
whether they stand for election. These nominations are private
until accepted by the nominated people.
* Insufficient Nominations: In the event that the number of eligible
candidates is less than or equal to the number of available seats,
the voting period will be delayed by two weeks. A public message
will be sent out to ask again for candidates.
In the event that the number of eligible candidates is less than or
equal to the number of available seats, voting occurs as normal but
each candidate needs to have more than 50 per cent yes votes. In
case that seats do not get elected, the new board will appoint them.
* Constitution: A new board term should start on the first of January,
the elections should be finished 14 days before. In the case of
delays, the new board will start 7 days after the election results
are published.
* Tie: In the event of a tie for the final slot on the board, the
election committee will schedule run-off elections between the tied
candidates within one week, with a voting period of one week to
resolve the tie.
In the event of a tie during the run-off elections, the newly
elected board - or the previous board, if all seats are to be filled
during the run-off elections - will appoint candidates running in
the run-off elections to fill the remaining slots.
* Forced reelection: If 20 per cent of the openSUSE members require a
new board election, an election will be held for the complete
elected Board seats.
* Amendment: Changes by the election rules can be done by vote of the
board where 2/3s approve it including the chairperson or by vote of
the membership where 2/3 of the openSUSE members approve it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Open Question
From Vincent: Should we move to some "smarter" voting
mechanism. The GNOME Foundation switched to STV [1][2], and I must
admit it feels more "right", when voting. This would need some change
in the voting software, though.
[1] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2009-
March/msg00001.html
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Transferable_Vote
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
References:
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board_succession_planning
* Jono Bacon in The Art of community management
* http://foundation.gnome.org/elections/2010/rules.html
* http://foundation.gnome.org/about/charter/
* http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Board_election
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even those old pharts who HATE the looks of the web forum, need to
read this posting, it includes:
"Very impressed with 11.3 - I have used Linux versions casually and
professionally since 1995. . . The installation was flawless, found
all the hardware and with no tweeking, everything works. ... I could
swear this laptop runs as smooth as an Apple. ... I hope the opensuse
team gets to read this. ..." and other good words for the Community!!!
http://preview.tinyurl.com/28jf9ko
or
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/community/soapbox/447181-very-impressed-…
DenverD
ps1: no log-in required to read..
ps2: it is available via nntp..
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'we' (as in 'we' of the openSUSE Community) don't really know what the
future holds..
but, it _seems_ to me that there has been a sharp drop off of Novell
employees contributing/posting to the mail lists/forums since the
NYPost scoop..
i wonder what happens if (as has happened too often in recent weeks)
the forum (or mail lists/irc/wiki/etc) machines/nets need TLC to
return to work...
do 'we' have non-Novell community hands with access to the levers and
gears controlling our ability to coordinate, communicate, and etc?
just thinking out loud: do 'we' need to make some backup plans
_before_ the communications networks go down and _then_ learn our
corporate sponsor has lost interest in 'we' and has decided to save
those man hours for more profitable endeavors ??
i know it is unpopular with some, but maybe 'we' could cobble together
some backup comm via everyone's friend, whose name begins with a big
blue G ??
just sayin': its easier to plan a backup while the lights are still on.
DenverD
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Hello Henne,
On 09/16/2010 09:37 AM, Henne Vogelsang wrote:
> Hey,
>
> On 16.09.2010 16:18, Charles Wight wrote:
>
>> The uncertainty is real, not FUD.
> THE uncertainty? We (Denver and I) talk about uncertainty if the
> openSUSE infrastructure would go away in a day and if we need a google
> backup or something.
>
> Telling people that the openSUSE community would go away in a day is FUD
> my friend. Real FUD. It might not be your intention but it is nonetheless.
I certainly don't intend to do anything other than describe reality.
Can OpenSUSE survive if all the folks who are currently employed by
Novell are told, "you're not being paid to work on OpenSUSE any longer,
work on XXX"? It's a genuine question ... it's not intended to be
rhetorical. It's not intended to frighten anyone! Does a
self-sustainable community actually exist?
>> OpenSOLARIS as an Oracle product is
>> alive and well. The OpenSOLARIS "community" ended in the course of a
>> day.
> The opensolaris community already found more than one new home and is
> recovering. Also the situation is something very different don't you think?
The situations are quite similar. Sun was trying to create a
Fedora-like community around Open Solaris much as Novell has tried to do
with OpenSUSE. While OpenSUSE is intrinsically more open than Solaris
by virtue of being gnu/linux, the economic and political dynamics of
corporate dependence are very similar. Of course, the intellectual
property issues around Solaris don't apply here. My opinion is that
OpenSUSE can never really be a community project if it depends on one
corporate sponsor, whether it be Novell or another entity.
>> Whether or not OpenSUSE survives as a product will depend upon
>> it's value to Novell's successor.
>>
>> As for the "community", things are far less certain.
> It's the community that suffers from your FUD at this time. Don't you
> get that? You have influence on this community. opensuse-project is not
> your own private smalltalk forum. You are accountable for what you say
> to this forum. So put up or shut up on the openSUSE mailinglists. Please :)
I certainly respect your opinion. I don't really know enough about the
"community" to agree or disagree with it. I'm not convinced that a
"community", aside from Novell employees, actually exists.
Finally, I do respect the sentiment you expressed, "put up or shut up
...." , even if expressed somewhat rudely. I am more than willing to
"Put up" if a community independent of Novell actually exists. If not,
I won't be here very long. Either way, I won't annoy you too much more :).
I'm testing the waters here! I am considering making a substantial
commitment of time without compensation. I do apologise if my openly
expressed doubts about OpenSUSE have disturbed you or anyone else. I
have no desire to be disruptive. I have no desire to donate my labor to
Novell or it's successor either!
Charles Wight
P.S.
Thanks for the links ....
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jigish Gohil <cyberorg(a)opensuse.org>
Date: Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 12:19 PM
Subject: [openSUSE-India] Review: openSUSE 11.3 Edu-Li-f-e - Amazing
To: opensuse-india <opensuse-india(a)googlegroups.com>, opensuse-edu(a)opensuse.org
Hello Community
Check out this great review of Li-f-e:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/opensuse-11sp3-edu-life.html
Digg it: http://digg.com/news/technology/opensuse_11_3_edu_li_f_e_amazing
Cheers
-J
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Regards
MANU
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