[ogb-discuss] [opensolaris-summit] My comments (very subjective) on proposed Summit topics

[Stephen Lau]

Joerg Schilling wrote:
> Alan DuBoff <alan.duboff at sun.com> wrote:
> 
>> I was talking with John Plocher today, and one of the things that we both 
>> agreed with is that we need some way for the community members to 
>> understand where and how they can participate, so that we can grow the 
>> community as a whole.
> 
> I believe there are two problems: missing visibility of the OGB and missing 
> power of the community.

Why do you perceive the former to be a problem?  Visibility of the OGB 
is a double-edged sword.  Yes, we want people to know there is an OGB so 
that they know there is a path of appeals and such; but we don't want 
the OGB to be so visible to the point that it is "in-your-face"[1].  The 
OGB has taken the view that the community is to be self-governing.

> Another big problem is burocracy that makes it hard to contribute and that 
> makes progress slow and this cannot be changed by the OGB.

Perhaps.  Perhaps not.
The topic I suggested for the summit is to identify specific barriers to 
contribution, so I'd like to hear more details (either now by email, or 
in a couple of weeks in person) about what specific barriers you see so 
we can figure out how to break them down.

> As burocracy is a self serving and self fostering system, only someone from 
> outside that has the needed power may change it.The only such person I am 
> currently aware is Ian Murdock.

What is the criteria for being considered "outside"?  While Ian clearly 
has exhibited past leadership, it's not clear to me that he is "outside" 
(I'm making the assumption that "outside" means external to Sun, 
apologies if I'm wrong...) or that he has the "needed power."

I would argue that people like yourself who have been in the community 
longer would have just as much credibility and/or ability.

cheers,
steve

[1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/in-your-face for non-English 
speakers who may be unfamiliar with the phrase
-- 
stephen lau // stevel at sun.com | 650.786.0845 | http://whacked.net
opensolaris // solaris kernel development