How to build a FOSS maintainer community (Was: Planning decomission of software.opensuse.org)
Hey, redirected to project@ as this the more appropriate list for me to rant about community building :-) On 30.03.22 13:23, Simon Lees wrote:
Sure not. And if you can't you can't. Your time, your decision. But you are not the only person in this crowd :-)
This is a well established, written about, even researched topic. There are tons of things we can do "passively" for our projects. And by projects I don't mean openSUSE as a whole. I mean all the building blocks that make up openSUSE. The teams, the software projects, the distribution etc. - clarify *what* we want to achieve. What are the priorities? *Who* is the priority? - establish contribution guidelines - clearly express roles and responsibilities - clearly express how we do conflict management - document the path to leadership - clearly express areas/problems that need attention - establish onboarding practices for new contributors - establish mentoring practices for contributors - establish decommission practices (something isn't salvageable, get rid of it!) - establish successor practices (people leave all the time) So help existing openSUSE maintainers/projects by setting up a golden path to follow for maintainership. Basically define what is openSUSEs shared understanding of how FOSS projects are supposed to be if they are part of openSUSE. Once the "passive" things are under control you can go out and be active about attracting people to projects. - Practice running projects to our standards - Practice mentoring & onboarding - Ask *people* you think will be a fit personally (best thing to do) - Hook into the existing mentoring programs - Events - Shouting to the public via blogs, social media, podcasts etc. This isn't something we are alone with. *Every* healthy FOSS community does this. There are whole communities about building communities! Books, events, guides etc. https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/foundations https://chaoss.community https://github.com/maintainers https://sustainoss.org https://opensource.guide/best-practices https://foss-backstage.de https://communityrule.info Working in Public by Nadia Eghbal The Art of Community by Jono So there is, as usual, just a shitload of things to learn and to do. And also as usual: A crowd (like this one here) will not collaborate. Some people out of the crowd will be interested. And only a very small amount of those interested will actually be able to do it. And *those* are the openSUSE community. We need to be more efficient in turning our crowd into a community of maintainers. Henne -- Henne Vogelsang http://www.opensuse.org Everybody has a plan, until they get hit. - Mike Tyson
Hi Henne, a community of maintainers requires also the correct leadership. The last sureveys had (not published) content by multiple community contributors with "reasons" for this situation.
I want to recommend an additional book for our openSUSE Board. "In The Open Organization Leaders Manual, a community of open-minded writers, consultants, speakers, and educators explains how those same open principles can help leaders refine their approaches to setting goals, building organizational cultures, and motivating teams." https://opensource.com/open-organization/resources/leaders-manual The Open Organization Leaders Manual is something what is necessary now. We are living all open principles in the FOSS community and with that at openSUSE.
Best regards, Sarah
On So, Apr 3 2022 at 19:20:54 +0200, Sarah Julia Kriesch <ada.lovelace@gmx.de> wrote:
I want to recommend an additional book for our openSUSE Board.
Just to note, hoping the obvious doesn't get missed here, this is not just the responsibility of the board, we are in this together. I don't want the board to stay still and not move their finger either, but I also hope we don't collectively stop and think that selecting 5 people a year solves this issue for us. We all need to take part in community building. LCP [Sasi] https://lcp.world/
The topic in this book is Open Leadership. Everybody can read it if you are interested for this topic. There is also a general book in this direction with the name The Open Organization. That is really interesing for all (but also for companies). https://www.amazon.de/Open-Organization-Igniting-Passion-Performance/dp/1625... Best regards, Sarah P.S. Sorry, that I have specified the openSUSE Board. That should be a hint, that it should be a "must read" for the, That is a "can read" for all the others in the community.
LCP [Sasi] https://lcp.world/
n Sun, 2022-04-03 at 19:49 +0200, Sarah Julia Kriesch wrote:
"You can't lead an open organizion in the tradtional top-down fashion" (Page 15) "Top-down decision making simply doesn't work.." (Page 16) "...each person is equally accountable for [thier] contributions and performance to everyone else, regardless of reporting relationship" (Page 81) "Don't wait for your manager to provide context" (Page 81) "Engage with your peers" (Page 81) "Don't use phrases like 'the boss wants it this way' or rely on hierarchical name dropping" (Page 106) "Consider whether your influence comes from your position [..], or whether is truely comes from the respect you have earned" (Page 106) (All Page citations are from ISBN 978-1-62527-527-1 (Hardback) - "Open Organization" by Jim Whitehurst (Signed)) I do not think that book sells the type of leadership your recent and historical posts on this mailinglist clearly seem to be desiring. Regards, Richard
I did not say anything in against these statements. I wanted to see Board Members interacting as role models others want to follow. If you are interacting on the same way as in the past on these mailing list, I have to create the first moderator ticket.
Regards,
Richard
Regards, Sarah
On Mon, 2022-04-04 at 11:48 +0200, Sarah Julia Kriesch wrote:
Thanks for your feedback, maybe the below will clear up where I'm coing from. One of the fundemental lessons of "The Open Organisation" is that leaders in open organisations are _not_ intended to be role models, but to provide, nuture, and support an environment where people can define their own role. The book stresses this point repeatedly, both directly, and implicitly with its constant deliniation between 'leaders' and 'associates'. The Board is designed to be a body that adds some of that necessary provisioning, nuturing and support to the openSUSE organisation. It is not designed to be a body of role models, and I think that's fine. After all, it is hard to do the duty of conflict resolution and still keep on everyones good side. And on that note, considering your threat regarding the moderators, I will quote again from the book (it IS a good book) "Proactively invite feedback and then thank those who give it to you. Feedback is a gift. As a leader or manager, if you react defensivly, you are unlikely to get that gift again"
Thank you! It is nice, if both sides are accepting feedback.
Then I want to reference also from the recommended books. The Open Organization Leaders Manual, p.78: "Exponential leadership occurs when an individual's impact gets multiplied. Exponential leaders compound and integrate the strengths of teams (groups of people) to create new organizational capabilities. They create new leaders and catalyze vibrant ecosystems of teams that channel their passion and energy toward a shared organizational purpose to deliver rapid results. Their leadership contributions have a powerful effect, with the potential to profoundly influence an organization's culture." Look into our community and our situation. How do you define people with passion for their role in the community? Are these people role-models or how do you define them? We need exactly such people and such a situation. We had less candidates during the last election. If I am watching around in different areas, the Global Localization Team (as an example) is without any Coordinator at the moment. Who is executing the "Exponential Leadership" to make contributions to openSUSE fetching and who should be responsible for that (in your opinion)?
The Board is elected by the community. The book The Open Organization is also describing, how people with reputation can grow in such roles. My own Manager (in the company) is saying: "With freedom comes responsibility" Therefore, you are receiving responsibilities, if you are contributing on a good way. Then connect that with the cite above.
That is one reason, that I said "Thank you!" to you above. Best regards, Sarah
On Mon, 2022-04-04 at 13:33 +0200, Sarah Julia Kriesch wrote:
Thanks! Very interesting to see you jump to that part of the document (for anyone wishing to following along - https://github.com/open-organization/open-org-leaders-manual/blob/master/10-... ) The whole document describes 3 stages of leadership. Leading Personally, Leading through a team, and Leading exponentially by catalzing other leaders. If I look at the principles of the rest of that essay and super-impose openSUSE atop it, it seems to undermine any suggestion that _The Board_ have a particually special role to play in such a journey. In openSUSE we can all choose to lead (personally) in whatever areas we wish. I've done that, you've done, the door is wide open for others to do that. The same goes for Team Leadership, as you are well aware with the team you have around you from your past leadership of the Localization process in openSUSE. Exponential leadership, taking someones leadership and compounding it with others, creating new leaders in the process, is not something we need the Board to do, but something good leaders can do throughout the project. Just thinking of my own personal story in openSUSE, I can think of countless examples of this - Kostas being an exponential leader and pushing me forward to contribute more to openSUSE. Myself trying to be somewhat of an exponential leader encoraging and mentoring various people across the Project, many of whom have become leaders in their own right (as examples - Sasi, Marina, Dario, Neal). There's lots I used to do as a 'leader' in openSUSE which is now handled by people better at it than I..being able to obsolete yourself is a key part of exponential leadership. It's an important part of community building, sure. I agree with you there. And it's certainly an area where we have weaknesses - your example of the Localization team no longer have a coordinator is a good one. But, where I disagree is - we don't need the Board to do it - infact the Board as an entity is compromised by it's role as a dispute resolution body and escalation point for various private matters. Speaking from experience, it's REALLY hard to balance those burdens with a desire to do _anything else_ for the Project so I can totally understand when good leaders in the community find themselves ironically _less_ visible as a Board member than they did as a non- Board member. Sticking with the Localization Team example - It's not the Board's job to figure out who should coordinate it.. it's the Team's job to figure out who amonst them should do it - or whether they actually need a coordinator at all. Given things are still getting translated, maybe we don't need one, maybe the community is mature enough to figure that out on it's own. That would be a good thing, no?
I do not want to judge nor define people who volunteer this community. I want our volunteer maintainers to be able to define themselves. I believe this is the core point Henne was also trying to make with starting this thread, with his suggestions as to how openSUSE could be better at doing that. None of Henne's suggestions require the Board to do any of them. - R
Hey, On 04.04.22 15:46, Richard Brown wrote:
None of Henne's suggestions require the Board to do any of them.
Exactly. No title or money needed for this. Just hard work and leadership. Henne -- Henne Vogelsang http://www.opensuse.org Everybody has a plan, until they get hit. - Mike Tyson
Op zondag 3 april 2022 19:20:54 CEST schreef Sarah Julia Kriesch:
From the Safety and Wellbeing survey results some content indeed was and will not be published. The reason was that some contributors did not respect the requirement to not mention individuals ( or make them otherwise uniquely identifiable ). This was discussed in a Community Meeting and those present unanimously agreed on not publishing those comments. This for obvious reasons. -- Gertjan Lettink a.k.a. Knurpht openSUSE Board openSUSE Forums Team
Hi, Sorry forgot to hit send last time, but I just wanted to say thankyou for the excellent well written guide i'm sure there's something we can all learn from it. On 4/2/22 01:20, Henne Vogelsang wrote:
-- Simon Lees (Simotek) http://simotek.net Emergency Update Team keybase.io/simotek SUSE Linux Adelaide Australia, UTC+10:30 GPG Fingerprint: 5B87 DB9D 88DC F606 E489 CEC5 0922 C246 02F0 014B
Hi Henne, a community of maintainers requires also the correct leadership. The last sureveys had (not published) content by multiple community contributors with "reasons" for this situation.
I want to recommend an additional book for our openSUSE Board. "In The Open Organization Leaders Manual, a community of open-minded writers, consultants, speakers, and educators explains how those same open principles can help leaders refine their approaches to setting goals, building organizational cultures, and motivating teams." https://opensource.com/open-organization/resources/leaders-manual The Open Organization Leaders Manual is something what is necessary now. We are living all open principles in the FOSS community and with that at openSUSE.
Best regards, Sarah
On So, Apr 3 2022 at 19:20:54 +0200, Sarah Julia Kriesch <ada.lovelace@gmx.de> wrote:
I want to recommend an additional book for our openSUSE Board.
Just to note, hoping the obvious doesn't get missed here, this is not just the responsibility of the board, we are in this together. I don't want the board to stay still and not move their finger either, but I also hope we don't collectively stop and think that selecting 5 people a year solves this issue for us. We all need to take part in community building. LCP [Sasi] https://lcp.world/
The topic in this book is Open Leadership. Everybody can read it if you are interested for this topic. There is also a general book in this direction with the name The Open Organization. That is really interesing for all (but also for companies). https://www.amazon.de/Open-Organization-Igniting-Passion-Performance/dp/1625... Best regards, Sarah P.S. Sorry, that I have specified the openSUSE Board. That should be a hint, that it should be a "must read" for the, That is a "can read" for all the others in the community.
LCP [Sasi] https://lcp.world/
n Sun, 2022-04-03 at 19:49 +0200, Sarah Julia Kriesch wrote:
"You can't lead an open organizion in the tradtional top-down fashion" (Page 15) "Top-down decision making simply doesn't work.." (Page 16) "...each person is equally accountable for [thier] contributions and performance to everyone else, regardless of reporting relationship" (Page 81) "Don't wait for your manager to provide context" (Page 81) "Engage with your peers" (Page 81) "Don't use phrases like 'the boss wants it this way' or rely on hierarchical name dropping" (Page 106) "Consider whether your influence comes from your position [..], or whether is truely comes from the respect you have earned" (Page 106) (All Page citations are from ISBN 978-1-62527-527-1 (Hardback) - "Open Organization" by Jim Whitehurst (Signed)) I do not think that book sells the type of leadership your recent and historical posts on this mailinglist clearly seem to be desiring. Regards, Richard
I did not say anything in against these statements. I wanted to see Board Members interacting as role models others want to follow. If you are interacting on the same way as in the past on these mailing list, I have to create the first moderator ticket.
Regards,
Richard
Regards, Sarah
On Mon, 2022-04-04 at 11:48 +0200, Sarah Julia Kriesch wrote:
Thanks for your feedback, maybe the below will clear up where I'm coing from. One of the fundemental lessons of "The Open Organisation" is that leaders in open organisations are _not_ intended to be role models, but to provide, nuture, and support an environment where people can define their own role. The book stresses this point repeatedly, both directly, and implicitly with its constant deliniation between 'leaders' and 'associates'. The Board is designed to be a body that adds some of that necessary provisioning, nuturing and support to the openSUSE organisation. It is not designed to be a body of role models, and I think that's fine. After all, it is hard to do the duty of conflict resolution and still keep on everyones good side. And on that note, considering your threat regarding the moderators, I will quote again from the book (it IS a good book) "Proactively invite feedback and then thank those who give it to you. Feedback is a gift. As a leader or manager, if you react defensivly, you are unlikely to get that gift again"
Thank you! It is nice, if both sides are accepting feedback.
Then I want to reference also from the recommended books. The Open Organization Leaders Manual, p.78: "Exponential leadership occurs when an individual's impact gets multiplied. Exponential leaders compound and integrate the strengths of teams (groups of people) to create new organizational capabilities. They create new leaders and catalyze vibrant ecosystems of teams that channel their passion and energy toward a shared organizational purpose to deliver rapid results. Their leadership contributions have a powerful effect, with the potential to profoundly influence an organization's culture." Look into our community and our situation. How do you define people with passion for their role in the community? Are these people role-models or how do you define them? We need exactly such people and such a situation. We had less candidates during the last election. If I am watching around in different areas, the Global Localization Team (as an example) is without any Coordinator at the moment. Who is executing the "Exponential Leadership" to make contributions to openSUSE fetching and who should be responsible for that (in your opinion)?
The Board is elected by the community. The book The Open Organization is also describing, how people with reputation can grow in such roles. My own Manager (in the company) is saying: "With freedom comes responsibility" Therefore, you are receiving responsibilities, if you are contributing on a good way. Then connect that with the cite above.
That is one reason, that I said "Thank you!" to you above. Best regards, Sarah
On Mon, 2022-04-04 at 13:33 +0200, Sarah Julia Kriesch wrote:
Thanks! Very interesting to see you jump to that part of the document (for anyone wishing to following along - https://github.com/open-organization/open-org-leaders-manual/blob/master/10-... ) The whole document describes 3 stages of leadership. Leading Personally, Leading through a team, and Leading exponentially by catalzing other leaders. If I look at the principles of the rest of that essay and super-impose openSUSE atop it, it seems to undermine any suggestion that _The Board_ have a particually special role to play in such a journey. In openSUSE we can all choose to lead (personally) in whatever areas we wish. I've done that, you've done, the door is wide open for others to do that. The same goes for Team Leadership, as you are well aware with the team you have around you from your past leadership of the Localization process in openSUSE. Exponential leadership, taking someones leadership and compounding it with others, creating new leaders in the process, is not something we need the Board to do, but something good leaders can do throughout the project. Just thinking of my own personal story in openSUSE, I can think of countless examples of this - Kostas being an exponential leader and pushing me forward to contribute more to openSUSE. Myself trying to be somewhat of an exponential leader encoraging and mentoring various people across the Project, many of whom have become leaders in their own right (as examples - Sasi, Marina, Dario, Neal). There's lots I used to do as a 'leader' in openSUSE which is now handled by people better at it than I..being able to obsolete yourself is a key part of exponential leadership. It's an important part of community building, sure. I agree with you there. And it's certainly an area where we have weaknesses - your example of the Localization team no longer have a coordinator is a good one. But, where I disagree is - we don't need the Board to do it - infact the Board as an entity is compromised by it's role as a dispute resolution body and escalation point for various private matters. Speaking from experience, it's REALLY hard to balance those burdens with a desire to do _anything else_ for the Project so I can totally understand when good leaders in the community find themselves ironically _less_ visible as a Board member than they did as a non- Board member. Sticking with the Localization Team example - It's not the Board's job to figure out who should coordinate it.. it's the Team's job to figure out who amonst them should do it - or whether they actually need a coordinator at all. Given things are still getting translated, maybe we don't need one, maybe the community is mature enough to figure that out on it's own. That would be a good thing, no?
I do not want to judge nor define people who volunteer this community. I want our volunteer maintainers to be able to define themselves. I believe this is the core point Henne was also trying to make with starting this thread, with his suggestions as to how openSUSE could be better at doing that. None of Henne's suggestions require the Board to do any of them. - R
Hey, On 04.04.22 15:46, Richard Brown wrote:
None of Henne's suggestions require the Board to do any of them.
Exactly. No title or money needed for this. Just hard work and leadership. Henne -- Henne Vogelsang http://www.opensuse.org Everybody has a plan, until they get hit. - Mike Tyson
Op zondag 3 april 2022 19:20:54 CEST schreef Sarah Julia Kriesch:
From the Safety and Wellbeing survey results some content indeed was and will not be published. The reason was that some contributors did not respect the requirement to not mention individuals ( or make them otherwise uniquely identifiable ). This was discussed in a Community Meeting and those present unanimously agreed on not publishing those comments. This for obvious reasons. -- Gertjan Lettink a.k.a. Knurpht openSUSE Board openSUSE Forums Team
Hi, Sorry forgot to hit send last time, but I just wanted to say thankyou for the excellent well written guide i'm sure there's something we can all learn from it. On 4/2/22 01:20, Henne Vogelsang wrote:
-- Simon Lees (Simotek) http://simotek.net Emergency Update Team keybase.io/simotek SUSE Linux Adelaide Australia, UTC+10:30 GPG Fingerprint: 5B87 DB9D 88DC F606 E489 CEC5 0922 C246 02F0 014B
participants (6)
-
Henne Vogelsang -
Knurpht-openSUSE -
Richard Brown -
Sarah Julia Kriesch -
Sasi Olin -
Simon Lees