18:01:19 #startmeeting Fedora Board IRC Meeting 18:01:19 Meeting started Fri Oct 1 18:01:19 2010 UTC. The chair is jsmith. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot. 18:01:19 Useful Commands: #action #agreed #halp #info #idea #link #topic. 18:01:30 #meetingname Fedora Board 18:01:30 The meeting name has been set to 'fedora_board' 18:01:50 #topic Roll Call (for Board members) 18:01:59 * jsmith is here 18:02:02 * mdomsch 18:02:10 * jds2001 18:02:11 * ctyler here 18:02:17 * mizmo here 18:02:51 here 18:03:00 Looks like we have most of the board here :-) 18:03:05 Great! 18:03:13 #topic Introduction 18:03:26 I'd like to take just a minute to introduce the topic and take care of a few particulars 18:03:47 First of all, let me express my thanks for everyone who has helped us to work on the vision statement 18:03:58 It hasn't been a particularly easy thing to do 18:04:09 but I very much feel it's a worthwhile endeavor 18:04:33 So, to make a long story short, this meeting is setup as a Q&A session around the vision statement 18:04:45 (if we have extra time, we'll open things up for more general Q&A) 18:05:16 We'll use our typical protocol for asking questions, which is detailed here: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board_public_IRC_meetings 18:05:37 #info Meeting is for Q&A re: vision statement 18:05:51 Any questions or comments before we get started with Q&A? 18:06:47 #info Final draft of the Vision Statement is ""The Fedora Project creates a world in which free and open culture is both welcoming and pervasive, collaboration and outreach are the norm, and people are empowered to control their own content and devices." 18:07:25 #topic Questions and Answers regarding the Vision Statement 18:07:59 jaroslav raised a comment on the mailing list that's worth considering - pervasive would be a word not known to the average non-native english speaker 18:08:01 The time is now yours for questions and answers... we'll try to limit each individual question to ~8 minutes, to be able to cover as many questions as possible 18:08:07 #info thread on the vision statement on advisory-board list http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/advisory-board/2010-September/009308.html 18:08:12 jds2001: Good question... 18:08:19 but im not sure of a suggestion to fix it :( 18:08:41 common, general, inescapable, omnipresent, permeating, pervading, prevalent, rife, ubiquitous, universal, wall-to-wall, widespread 18:08:47 thesarus-fu 18:08:56 far-reaching, sweeping 18:08:58 jds2001: I too hesitated to use that word, but it's a word that very well describes how we want Fedora to fit into the bigger world. Yes, it's a difficult word to translate, but it's also a very specific word 18:09:04 wide-ranging, widespread 18:09:17 It's a combination of far-reaching and widespread 18:09:26 In other words, it's not a mile wide and an inch deep 18:09:35 Nor is it a mile deep and an inch wide 18:09:46 for the germans: in, with, and under ? :-) 18:09:50 I had asked jreznik for suggested alternatives, but seems he didn't come up with any. :( 18:10:37 permeating is as close to pervasive as any of the others, but is difficult to translate itself :-/ 18:10:39 sorry - protestant/lutheran humor attempt there... 18:11:05 mdomsch: No worries... even if nobody else laughed, I got a kick out of it. 18:11:10 what is the meaning meant in the statement 18:11:11 heh 18:11:23 my interpretation was ubiquitous / widespread 18:11:48 "pervasive: to become spread throughout all parts of: Spring pervaded the air. " 18:12:06 widespread seems to be simpler language with similar meaning 18:12:32 "widespread: spread over or open, or occupying a wide space; distributed over a wide region, or occurring in many places or among many persons or individuals" 18:12:34 and provides alliteration 18:12:37 It's not as exact, but might be close enough 18:12:47 * mizmo missing the exactness involved 18:12:47 * mdomsch can't spell today either 18:12:56 widespread works for me 18:13:09 mdomsch: If we're going for that, I'm sure we could replace "outreach" with something that started with the letter 'c' 18:13:14 wuh-wuh instead of wup-puh 18:13:20 well, we have 2 options: 18:13:42 we can keep pervasive, and when we translate to other languages, attempt to find the closest match in each 18:14:08 or we can use a different word, that might be more easily translated; but I suspect we'll run into the same problem with anything we choose 18:14:27 I'd like to hear from >1 non-native speaker too 18:14:48 rdieter, i think the guy upset about the commas had the same point 18:14:58 even though it only has two commas 18:15:11 his point was that it takes a while to dig into the meaning 18:15:12 ok, then, >2 ? :) 18:15:20 the commas are correct :) 18:15:30 Yes, I placed the commas with care :-) 18:15:49 grammar rocks 18:16:03 yeh the commas are clearly correct, but this dude used them as the reason (albeit likely wrong) he couldn't grok the sentence easily 18:16:27 but i think that can be solved too by listing the series out in bullet points when wiki-fying the statement 18:16:37 that would definitely improve the readability imho 18:16:42 * jds2001 didnt find anything saying he couldnt grok it 18:16:49 just asking if it was needed 18:16:49 jds2001, i had a discussion with him off-list 18:16:58 ahhhh 18:16:58 mizmo: I like the idea of bullets 18:17:02 and possibly the background, intent behind each of those points, as well ? (or not?) 18:17:18 in an expansion or explanation, sure 18:17:51 we should keep spot's feedback in mind - this should fit in a tweet :) 18:18:03 but i think we're over that 18:18:04 cool, cause I had to explain that on several occasions to folks who ended up with different/interesting interpretations, than what was the intention 18:18:27 extra explanation is probably cool but just somewhere else, kind of how individual points in the mission statement is explained on the overview page further down 18:18:33 not embedded 18:18:35 Right... I don't have a problem explaining the meaning and intention on a wiki page, but the vision statement itself should be concise 18:18:42 nod, agreed. 18:19:37 In the absence of any other feedback on the word "pervasive", I'm gonna put my vote in the "leave it in there" column 18:19:37 jds2001: we're a bit over a tweet, yes 18:19:41 i think pervasive is the most 'SAT vocabularly' word in the statement, i dont really see any of the others being potentially problematic 18:19:54 i think widespread is a better word 18:19:57 jsmith: +1 to leaving pervasive in there 18:20:22 pervasive++ 18:20:26 -1 18:20:45 mizmo: pervasive is perhaps broader than widespread -- pervasive means soaking through everything, not just 'common' 18:20:46 mizmo: The best way I can explain it is with a peanut-butter sandwich... I see peanut butter widespread on the bread, but not pervasive throughout the sandwich 18:20:47 * jds2001 is on the fence :) 18:21:01 sounds like split ends to me 18:21:08 its a vision statement, not a literary opus 18:21:15 Point well taken 18:21:37 I think I'm with mizmo here, the clarity has to take precedence 18:21:55 -1 18:21:58 if people have to pull out a dictionary, they wont, then the clarified meaning is completely lost not just partially 18:22:02 FWIW, I like 'widespread.' The vision statement should be simple *and* concise. 18:22:41 I think it's easy for those of us who love language and writing to sometimes love a word for its connotation and distinction, but it may not help Joe Average (or even Joe Above-average) understand us better :-) 18:22:44 stickster: are we past your 'concise' limit too? 18:23:04 jane like peanut butter. ugh ugh. 18:23:10 stickster: +1 (well said, better than what I was drumming up) 18:23:18 mdomsch: No, I really like it. 18:23:20 mizmo: :-D 18:23:31 * jsmith changes his vote to a definitive +0 18:23:33 i'm fine with widespread 18:24:02 Alright... what other parts of the vision statement do we want to discuss 18:24:04 * jds2001 -1 to pervasive now :) 18:24:19 (I mean -- if this is the most contentious piece, then we've done something right, correct?) 18:24:27 rdieter: do keep in mind that stickster is....verbose :D 18:24:34 loquacious 18:24:36 bombastic 18:24:55 * jsmith would almost add "full of hot air" if he weren't sitting right next to stickster at this moment 18:24:57 stickster is on a roll, go go 18:25:02 /both/d ? 18:25:03 * stickster punches jsmith 18:25:06 Ouch! 18:25:15 stickster: I said "almost" 18:25:17 Did I mention pugnacious? 18:25:25 18:25:38 vainglorious? 18:25:46 I think it flows fine w/o the word 'both' in there 18:25:52 vociferous 18:26:20 mizmo for the win 18:26:36 supercajifragilisticexpialladocious 18:26:47 does anyone have anything else???? 18:26:51 OK, s/pervasive/widespread/ and s/ both// 18:26:53 mdomsch: good catch, I agree 18:27:06 (Are we under 140 chars yet?) 18:27:08 one more step towards tweetability 18:27:19 "The Fedora Project creates a world in which free and open culture is welcoming and widespread, collaboration and outreach are the norm, and people are empowered to control their own content and devices." 18:27:33 62 characters over 18:28:06 can we tighten up the second clause? 18:28:14 still way over 18:28:30 #idea strike "and outreach are" and replace with "is" 18:28:30 mdomsch: We accept patches :-) How would you suggest we tighten it up? 18:28:38 this is only 33 over "The Fedora Project creates a world where free culture is welcoming and widespread, collaboration and outreach are the norm, and people control their own content and devices." 18:28:40 s/are empowered to// 18:28:42 #idea strike "are empowered to" 18:28:46 what was the rationale for "and outreach"? 18:28:55 Concise is one thing, terse is another; not sure twitter is the right ruler to measure by. 18:28:56 jds2001: +1 18:28:57 mdomsch: That was the original idea, until we talked about it on Monday" 18:28:57 outread => attract new users 18:28:58 outreach being an active verb 18:29:02 outreach... 18:29:02 is outreach redundant with welcoming 18:29:08 mizmo: +1 18:29:22 this is 19 over "The Fedora Project creates a world where free culture is welcoming and widespread, collaboration is the norm, and people control their own content and devices." 18:29:32 i like that one better 18:29:47 hehe this is 17 over "The Fedora Project creates a world where free culture is welcoming & widespread, collaboration is the norm, and people control their own content and devices." 18:29:52 & <= ftw! 18:30:03 heh, that's cheating 18:30:03 haha 18:30:05 s/own// ? 18:30:15 13 over "The Fedora Project creates a world where free culture is welcoming & widespread, collaboration is the norm, and people control their content and devices." 18:30:17 I personally would prefer including outreach and drop welcoming, but that doesn't help us much size-wise, and I won't push it if I'm the only one that feels that way 18:30:25 but! twin w's! 18:30:28 ww 18:30:46 I'd rather have something that's better worded and slightly over the limit, rather than 140 characters and too vague. 18:30:46 rdieter: +1 18:30:53 jsmith: +1 18:31:01 i think welcoming is more people-centric though 18:31:07 you can outreach to things that aren't people 18:31:08 jsmith: Agreed, clarity over twitter 18:31:16 jsmith: +1, but we should come up with a "twitter version" 18:31:22 rdieter: +1 18:31:23 and outreach's meaning is sometimes for 'beating others' 18:31:33 13 over is close enough no 18:31:34 seems odd to have to say the open/free culture is welcoming ... to me that's almost 'by definition' 18:31:45 rdieter, one would think! did you see the blog post i made today heh 18:31:56 well, there's the active verb outreach, and there's the (IMHO more) passive verb welcoming 18:31:57 rdieter: should be but isn't necessarily 18:31:57 mizmo: why welcome wordiness? words wound when wielded... uh, wecklessly 18:31:58 !Fedora hearts !FIAF, collaboration, and peeps in control 18:32:34 mizmo: yeah (awesome by the way), ok, that's a different line of thinking than what I had in mind... but if that's what it takes to cover the bases, I'm fine with it 18:32:38 http://duffy.fedorapeople.org/blog/drawings/cookies/um-how.png 18:32:39 * ctyler still reads !Fedora as "not Fedora" 18:32:40 I'd say we've been welcoming, but haven't done as much outreach - and part of the goal is to get more active on outreach 18:32:40 that diagram 18:32:46 includes "outreach" but does not include "welcoming" http://duffy.fedorapeople.org/blog/drawings/cookies/um-how.png 18:33:11 stickster, whoah, way! 18:33:21 mizmo: You win the cookie 18:33:25 doh 18:33:29 mdomsch, i kinda think the opposite 18:33:41 rdieter: You make a good point. free/open culture == "collaboration". 18:33:50 http://duffy.fedorapeople.org/blog/drawings/cookies/istuff.png <= welcoming 18:33:57 stickster: but it's worth reiterating, imho 18:34:12 What's currently the accepted version again? 18:34:22 There's more to open/free culture than just collaboration 18:34:28 (we're more than just crowdsourcing) 18:34:29 pre-twitterification 18:34:32 " "The Fedora Project creates a world in which free and open culture is welcoming and widespread, collaboration and outreach are the norm, and people are empowered to control their own content and devices."" 18:34:37 that's 60+ chars over 18:35:06 Enough with the 'wc -c' already :-) 18:35:29 jsmith: Yeah, I should have said "contains" not "==" 18:35:35 In any case... 18:35:37 i think the length is a good indicator of its simplicity or lack thereof *shrug* 18:36:11 Actually, I think there's a lot of open that is not welcoming or collaborative. It may be broken open, but it's still out there. I think we want to fix that. 18:36:19 The pre-twitter version seems pretty good to me. 18:36:22 a swap on the shortest-form: "The Fedora Project creates a world where free culture is welcoming & widespread, outreach is the norm, and people control their content and devices." 18:36:52 I concede mizmo's point on outreach, would be open to s/ and outreach are/ is/ 18:37:20 "outreach is the norm" doesn't work for me 18:37:33 a swap on the shortest-form: "The Fedora Project creates a world where free culture is welcoming & widespread, collaboration is the norm, and people control their content and devices." 18:37:39 (swap back) 18:37:46 I want both collaboration and outreach 18:38:04 jsmith: you don't like "is the norm" ? 18:38:15 I'm having a hard time with that phrase 18:38:43 yeh is the norm of what 18:39:26 that collaboration and outreach are the norm, rather than being an odd way of doing things 18:39:40 a swap on the shortest-form: "The Fedora Project creates a world where free culture is welcoming & widespread, collaboration is commonplace, and people control their content and devices." 18:39:43 ww! cc! wee 18:39:45 to me, outreach becomes the natural result of enthusiasm 18:39:51 Right now, people still look at me funny when I try to explain that we get lots of people to collaborate on building free software 18:40:06 exciting even 18:40:20 how can we add excitement? 18:40:21 mizmo: I like that 18:40:36 mizmo: +1 18:40:38 mdomsch, add excitement to the statement? 18:41:04 mizmo: 'an exciting world'? 18:41:11 "The Fedora project creates a world where free culture is welcoming, widespread, collaborative, enthusiastic." 18:41:13 mizmo: yeah, somehow; the sense, at least, that what we're creating is an exciting world, rather than simply a world of drudgery that we have to advertise to get people interested in 18:41:20 who's to say the world is exciting? 18:41:21 well i mean 18:41:27 i think making it exciting is all in the treatment 18:41:30 pervasive and norm mean that it's *the* way things are done; widespread doesn't seem to convey that. Is there a simple, stronger alternative to widespread? 18:41:52 you take that statement, lay it out nice and cleanly, have photos and illustrations showing what it can do, will generate a lot more excitement than any turn of phrase imho 18:41:56 ctyler: "free culture welcomes people everywhere" 18:41:57 but then again im a designer :) 18:42:05 * jsmith still likes pervasive, but it's too highbrow it seems 18:42:07 indeed 18:42:17 jsmith: Put away your monocle, thanks 18:42:24 Mr. Peanut 18:42:26 s/people everywhere/everyone/ ? 18:42:39 we be simple folk 18:42:46 yessum 18:42:47 * stickster and jsmith are laughing here but you can't hear us. All in good fun! 18:43:05 simple folk eating peanut butter :-) 18:43:12 ungh ungh 18:43:18 collaboratively making sandwiches 18:43:19 OK folks... we're about 45 minutes in... are we making progress, or just going 'round in circles? 18:43:42 "The Fedora Project creates a world where free culture is welcoming & widespread, collaboration is commonplace, and people control their content and devices." ? 18:43:47 "The Fedora Board creates a world where people work collaboratively, but finally agree on a vision statement." 18:43:55 : 18:43:56 touche! 18:44:00 :) 18:44:01 doh 18:44:43 mizmo: fwiw, I think that vision statement is fairly concise and also kind of elegant. 18:44:55 Might be a case of perfect being the enemy of the good :-) 18:45:12 mizmo: I like that, a good improvement 18:45:15 worksforme 18:45:16 Aye... I don't think we're anywhere close to "good vs. bad" here... simply "good, better, best" 18:45:22 * stickster does think strike the '&' for 'and' thought 18:45:23 *though 18:45:33 * jsmith agrees w/ stickster on that one 18:45:38 its only 15 over 18:45:39 stickster++ 18:45:40 * jds2001 too 18:45:46 what! no & 18:45:57 hehe 18:46:04 jk 18:46:24 mizmo: I think we should use ♥ to test all utf16 delivery mechanisms 18:46:29 I suppose we could nix the "The Fedora Project creates a world where ..." part at times to make it tweetable 18:46:45 the stuff after that is the juicy part 18:46:53 rdieter: Precisely. "Our vision: ____" 18:46:54 rdieter: Fedora: where free culture... 18:47:11 mdomsch: ooh. neat. 18:47:21 "The Fedora Project creates a world where: 18:47:22 * free culture is welcoming and widespread 18:47:22 * collaboration is commonplace 18:47:22 * people control their content and devices 18:47:49 (just to see how it looks bulleted) 18:47:56 * jsmith likes it 18:47:59 FedoraWorld: where... 18:48:00 mdomsch: nice ;-) 18:48:13 #fedora: where... weeheehee 18:48:13 Looks good. 18:48:15 * jds2001 likes 18:48:25 See, we can all be Gustave Flaubert for a day ;-) 18:48:39 I say we get the vision statement nailed down, then work on the identi.ca version 18:49:07 jsmith: good call, yes 18:49:22 we need a 'c' word for devices 18:49:23 It's ten minutes before the hour. 18:49:34 carryons, ... 18:49:40 or "data" instead of "content" 18:49:51 ah yes 18:49:51 (althought content > data) 18:50:00 content and computing devices 18:50:01 hehe 18:50:32 haven't had much non-board feedback or comment (outside of stickster, but he doesn't count). people's, we need to hear what you think. 18:50:41 rdieter: Hey, that's darn rude ;-) 18:51:07 stickster: you're pratically still a board member... feel better/ 18:51:09 ? 18:51:09 #info Now's your chance to have your say! 18:51:19 * stickster totally wants to hear from other peeps and is just here to serve the pretzels and pour the beverages 18:51:42 * rdieter snags some munchies 18:51:51 `U `U `U `U 18:51:54 stickster: Do you have any of those jalepeño pretzels, with some cheese sauce, and a tall lemonade? 18:52:00 * jds2001 orders beer 18:53:39 OK, let's try to wrap up on time here 18:54:01 Are we all in agreement on the latest version? 18:54:12 yes 18:54:42 yep 18:54:57 watch the mailing list this weekend, quick vote on Monday :) 18:55:08 Works for me. 18:55:26 yep 18:56:36 yes 18:57:02 Any objections? 18:58:19 none here 18:58:22 +1 18:58:24 yay 18:58:28 can we have a party after the vote 18:58:46 party++ 18:58:48 mizmo: You bring the donuts, and I'll bring the milk 18:59:11 woo 18:59:27 #agreed "The Fedora Project creates a world where free culture is welcoming and widespread, collaboration is commonplace, and people control their content and devices." 18:59:30 oh wait 18:59:35 crap 18:59:36 * jsmith waits 18:59:44 the meeting is over isnt it 19:00:00 smooge: Nope... just "almost" over 19:00:09 smooge: We're still taking input... what's up? 19:00:28 ok I am here. I have no input.. but as a board member I should be here for the vote correct 19:00:29 jsmith: i was thinking something more than donuts and milk :D 19:00:32 (we can undo the #agreed if you're not in agreement) 19:00:41 smooge: The official vote is on Monday 19:01:04 oh ok 19:01:19 I have nothing I can say at the moment. 19:01:47 smooge: If you have something between now and Monday, bring it up on the mailing list, please. 19:02:14 jsmith: So once this is in place, what happens then? 19:02:46 stickster: Well, it's part of my "master plan" 19:02:48 * rdieter thought party was next (sorry, couldn't help it) 19:02:57 Now that you brought it up, I'll have to share my secret plan! 19:02:57 * ctyler thought so too 19:03:08 First of all, make sure that the Board is doing things according to that vision. 19:03:36 Second, take the vision to the other groups (FAMSCo, FESCo, SIGs, etc.), and make sure they're on board 19:03:57 (Not that I think they won't be, but we owe them the courtesy) 19:04:06 Third, Profit! (oops, old Slashdot habit there) 19:04:29 From then, I'd like to take a step back and take a holistic look at Fedora (the distro) through the lens of this vision. 19:04:48 Start talking about things we can do to the bits and bytes to make sure they are in line with the vision. 19:05:13 Obviously, there are parts of the vision statement that pertain more to the community at large than to the bits and bytes 19:05:21 and we've got some work to do there 19:05:46 rdieter is working on a charter for a Community Working Group, for example, to explore how we can work better as a community 19:06:39 So that example would address the "welcoming" portion of the vision. I get it. 19:06:52 Aye :-) 19:06:58 i think we should work with openhatch too in order to welcome new contributors 19:07:18 OPENHATCH? 19:07:20 oops 19:07:22 hehe 19:07:34 openhatch is one example of a group we can work with... there are probably dozens of others 19:07:38 http://openhatch.org/ 19:07:41 jds2001: CAPS LOCK FRIDAY! 19:07:41 http://openhatch.org/ 19:07:42 * stickster thinks that the question wasn't just for himself but for people who are watching this meeting but can't necessarily be here. Thanks for talking about the next steps! 19:08:08 asheesh and dpic are looking at implementing the fedora design team bounty system on there, for any project 19:08:43 nice! 19:09:06 OK, anything else? 19:09:07 I am ok with things.. 19:09:17 Shall we wrap things up for now? 19:09:24 #topic Any other business 19:10:22 Going once... 19:10:56 Going twice... 19:11:31 Sold to the bidder on the back row with the funny hat! 19:11:35 hey now 19:11:42 Thanks again everyone for your feedback and hard work. I really appreciate it. 19:11:46 #endmeeting