call for release team volunteers

Hi all--

     The board decided that the release team shall consist of three
people appointed by the board; whether or not there is a "team leader"
is up to them. The team will do what we call "forgiving integration".
"Integration" means simply composing systems from completed
contributions, and explicitly avoiding development. The members of the
team are certainly welcome to be a part of development efforts as well
(as is every member of the community), but that is outside the scope of
the release team's mission.

     The team will be "forgiving" in that they will not reject
conflicting contributions out of hand. Rather, they will first attempt
to get the relevant parties to resolve the conflicts in a timely
fashion. We did not discuss whether there should be a rigid timeline for
each release, nor what the specific contents of any future release
should be. We can do these things in future board meetings if people
think they shouldn't be left up to each release team. Likewise, the
release team will operate under close oversight from the board, and the
board will make further policy as necessary.

     We're looking for people who have available time, the diligence to
complete a release, and a good degree of mutual trust with the
community. If you'd like to volunteer, please do so here! If you have
someone else in mind, please contact them privately and encourage them
to volunteer.


     thanks!

-C

--
Craig Latta
http://netjam.org/resume

Hi -

Thanks for taking the lead on these issues. Couple of questions:
1) What are the deadlines? Both for proposals and for decisions?
2) Shouldn't the board choose a team instead of individuals? E.g., the
way I read your message is that individuals volunteer and the board
chooses a number of them to run the release. I'd rather see teams
volunteer and have the board choose a team. Or perhaps this is what you
mean?
3) What degree of freedom does the release team have in making
decisions? You say it will "operate under close oversight from the
board" does this have any specific implications?

Cheers,
   - Andreas

Craig Latta wrote:

Hi Andreas--

> What are the deadlines? Both for proposals and for decisions?

     There is currently no formal deadline, but we're hoping that we can
get this done by the next board meeting or two (and that there will be a
flurry of volunteerism starting now :).

> Shouldn't the board choose a team instead of individuals? E.g., the
> way I read your message is that individuals volunteer and the board
> chooses a number of them to run the release. I'd rather see teams
> volunteer and have the board choose a team. Or perhaps this is what
> you mean?

     Yes indeed. We're hoping that people will be forward-thinking
enough to form effective trios on their own and propose them, but we
don't want to exclude singletons since free time is so scarce generally.
We wouldn't appoint people who we didn't think would make a good team.
And we may have to settle for a smaller team if, for example, only a
couple can spare the time. We hope it doesn't come to that, though.

> What degree of freedom does the release team have in making decisions?
> You say it will "operate under close oversight from the board" does
> this have any specific implications?

     It means that all decisions are subject to the approval of the
board. (We take this as part of our mandate from the community.)
Practically, for now it's our way of saying "anything we forgot to
stipulate now we will stipulate when necessary". :)  At the same time,
we hope not to have to intercede, trusting the release team to make good
decisions. The "close oversight" part is mostly about our desire to make
sure the release team's work doesn't stagnate.


     thanks!

-C

--
Craig Latta
http://netjam.org/resume