Actually something like that sounds like a good first "quick fix" step, before inventing/naming a bunch of other teams. Set expectations correctly. Lubos On Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 7:40 PM Henne Vogelsang <hvogel@opensuse.org> wrote:
Hey,
this has been in the back of my mind since a long time. This is a request for comment for change to the openSUSE Guiding principles.
Reality? --------
When the project invented the openSUSE Guiding Principles that people are supposed to adhere to, we also needed to invent a group of people that could enforce those principles.
Because enforcing those rules could mean, in the worst case, to exclude someone from the project, we wanted to give this group of people some democratic legitimization. By giving the community members the say on who is in this group with voting, limiting members terms, making sure it's not dominated by one company etc.
We explicitly codified what this group of people is supposed to do and what it is not supposed to do. We named this group openSUSE Board.
Also: In businesses, non-profits and in many other Open Source projects a board of directors is the governing body that sets the strategy, oversee management, finances, protects the interests of stakeholders etc.
Consequences? -------------
By now we learned that by naming this group of people doing this job "openSUSE Board" we have awakened expectations that go way beyond the responsibilities this group of people has. Examples:
Frequently in openSUSE Board elections people run on a platform that says they will be able to change some aspect of the project. It often makes the wrong people apply to the openSUSE Board.
Whenever we need to form a new group of people that takes care of some aspect of this project, people think this new group has to get legitimacy from the openSUSE Board. But the board does not do this. It keeps people from *taking* responsibility.
openSUSE Sponsors, especially SUSE, are using the openSUSE Board as "confidant" to bring forward requests. Instead of using it as consultants how to bring forward their requests to the community. It hinders direct communication and the establishment of other communication channels with project members.
A *lot* of confusion happens as people wait for the openSUSE Board to decide and give directions, to solve disagreements with two viable options or to "start" some project. Again, it keeps people from *taking* responsibility.
A *lot* of in-fighting about gaining/keeping/expanding control over the openSUSE Board because it's mistaken as source of "power". It needlessly makes this community a hostile place.
Every new board basically goes to this phase of discovery what their job actually is and struggles with the wrong expectations. It makes the very hard job the openSUSE Board members have, *way* harder than it needs to be.
Future? -------
The "Governance" paragraph of the openSUSE Guiding Principles is changed and the openSUSE Board gets a different name that does not invoke the comparison to the concept of a "board of directors".
The job of the group of people formerly know as openSUSE Board gets easier to do.
The reality is clear to contributors that they have to organize *any* group of people to work on something themselves.
The shortcomings of the infrastructure to form new groups of contributors taking care of some aspect of this project is becoming the responsibility of the existing contributors.
The shortcomings in the communication structure of our project become clear and are not overlaid by the expectations that you just have to go to the "board of directors" and they will drip the information down into the organization for you.
The *stupid* in-fighting about expectations to the board *and* control over it hopefully stop if people realize what the openSUSE Board actually is.
Proposal! ---------
We rename the group of people that is now called the openSUSE Board to openSUSE Mediators. We change the "Governance" paragraph of the openSUSE Guiding Principles to read:
Comments?
Henne
-- Henne Vogelsang http://www.opensuse.org Everybody has a plan, until they get hit. - Mike Tyson
-- Best regards Luboš Kocman openSUSE Leap Release Manager