[ogb-discuss] Community Facilitators

[Jim Grisanzio]

Darren J Moffat wrote:
> Jim Grisanzio wrote:
>> If you have an approved but not yet created project that no one has 
>> sent to the OGB as per the project creation process then I'd argue 
>> that you don't have an approved project. The process hasn't been 
>> completed. Why is it so difficult for someone in that CG to monitor 
>> the list for project discussions and votes, walk people through the 
>> process, and keep track of stuff? What am I missing? I do this with 
>> Advocacy specifically because we have a lot people in user groups 
>> around the world whose first language is not English, and so some of 
>> this is confusing. So, I walk everyone through it from beginning to end.
> 
> Because it all takes time and someone has to learn and remember that all 
> this needs to be done. 

But it's part of running a community. We are running projects within CGs 
inside and outside and that requires direct involvement at all levels of 
an organization. If engineers are primarily coding, then the managers 
manage the operations. I see no reason why Sun PMs shouldn't be actively 
helping to manage CG operations just as they do inside with internal 
projects. Are the PMs in your area involved? The projects, after all, 
are opening, so the people ought to be doing the same things outside.

Then, as things evolve, everyone in the open can decide who manages 
what, and that would offer good opportunities for non-Sun people to do 
the operations as well. People have already pinged me about Advocacy 
facilitation since I've been hogging it for a while. Cool. We'll talk 
about it and it will go to someone else.


> In my opinion the OGB has done a very poor job 
> letting the communities know what is expected of them in areas like 
> this.  It appears to me that the OGB assumes that community leaders 
> actively "pull" information, stuff this important (even if it is in the 
> approved constitution) really should be "pushed" (just once is fine).

I agree (we all agree) that the communications can be improved. I'm not 
sure how to solve that, to be honest, because it's so big and it's 
spread out inside and outside. But I think the OGB has to post 
announcements to opensolaris-announce (push) and the CG leads and 
facilitators need to read them (pull). It has to be both ways.

Various groups have asked me recently how they can build community 
around their stuff. Step one: close your internal lists and talk on 
external lists. It's right about then that the room gets quiet.

Then I say they can't build community from behind a firewall. It's 
simply not possible. Look, the majority of CGs and projects are being 
opened from within Sun, so I think it's Sun's responsibility to open 
this stuff, actively manage it initially, and in the process of managing 
it in the open mixing with non-Sun people under the model outlined 
beautifully in the Constitution. That's quite literally how to build 
community. And part of that is having someone involved in facilitating 
operations. None of this is magic. We do this every day. We keep 
complaining that not enough engineers are working in the open, but we 
rarely complain that the managers and PMs are not in the open. They need 
to get out there too, and the engineers working in the open ought to 
point that out.

Jim
-- 
Jim Grisanzio http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris