19:00:49 #startmeeting Fedora Board Meeting 19:00:49 Meeting started Fri Jan 7 19:00:49 2011 UTC. The chair is jsmith. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot. 19:00:49 Useful Commands: #action #agreed #halp #info #idea #link #topic. 19:01:41 #chair jsmith jsmith smooge abadger1999 ke4qqq kital rdieter 19:01:41 Current chairs: abadger1999 jsmith ke4qqq kital rdieter smooge 19:01:48 #meetingname Fedora Board 19:01:48 The meeting name has been set to 'fedora_board' 19:01:58 #topic Introduction 19:02:35 Welcome to our bi-weekly Fedora Board IRC meeting 19:02:38 here 19:03:18 Today, we're going to discuss overarching goals we'd like to accomplish over the next few releases 19:03:42 The idea is to narrow down our wish list from fifteen to two or three (or maybe four?) 19:03:55 The original list of goals is here: 19:03:58 #link http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Meeting:Board_meeting_2010-12-13 19:04:40 * kital is here 19:04:57 Just as a reminder, we're going to encourage everyone to use the Board meeting protocol as outlined in the "General Rules" section of https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board_public_IRC_meetings 19:05:11 (For members of the Board, just type as fast as you can!) 19:05:21 Any questions before we get started? 19:06:08 ? will there be general Q&A at the end? 19:06:18 Dandapani: There will be, if we have time. 19:06:43 Dandapani: We typically reserve at least half of the meeting for open Q&A, but this meeting is a bit different -- we'll see how much time we have after discussing the goals 19:06:55 Thanks for asking :-) 19:07:45 #topic Discussion of overarching multi-release goals 19:08:13 Let me start out the discussion by saying that I think the fifteen or so goals we have are all important -- and I wish we could accomplish them all! 19:08:55 For better or for worse, however, I think it's important that we pick the most important goals and attack those first 19:09:01 Hence the reason for today's meeting 19:09:56 ok 19:10:26 I can throw out my "favorites" in the list, but I'd rather hear from other people first 19:10:35 * kital want to add that famsco will discuss Board Goal Settings in their next meeting after the intro by david nalley according to action item from last board meeting 19:10:43 http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/famsco/2011-January/000554.html 19:10:53 Which goals do you think are highest priority? 19:11:18 * ke4qqq shows up late 19:12:20 ke4qqq: hola 19:12:24 of course GOAL #3: Improve and encourage high-quality communication in the Fedora Community 19:12:43 That one is on my "favorites" list 19:13:05 ! 19:13:24 => limburgher 19:13:45 GOAL #7: Encourage open standards , but it's huge. 19:14:23 Sure, that's a huge one, but it's important 19:14:58 That being said, I'm not sure it's as urgent or as pressing as GOAL #3 19:15:11 jsmith: +1 19:15:12 ? 19:15:19 => andrewjroth 19:15:27 Pardon the ignorance, but does Fedora have an overall goal/mission statement? 19:15:45 glad you asked! 19:15:47 andrewjroth: Great question. The answer is "absolutely!" 19:16:01 https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Overview 19:16:04 andrewjroth: ^^ 19:16:11 The Fedora Project creates a world where 19:16:11 * free culture is welcoming and widespread, 19:16:11 * collaboration is commonplace, and 19:16:11 * people control their content and devices. 19:16:19 That's our vision statement 19:16:28 Also: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mission 19:16:32 ! 19:16:45 smooge: You're a board member -- just jump right in :-) 19:17:11 oh sorry.. trying to be polite. Was there a goal for us to write out our actual "charter" or was that for something else. 19:17:34 sorry same page these days, just a redirect 19:17:54 smooge: That's an example of carrying out Goal #1 19:18:11 Then that to me is #1 also :) 19:18:36 ! 19:19:08 That reminds me of an important thing to point out -- these fifteen goals are all strategic -- once we decide the most important, then we'll work with FAMSCo, FESCo, etc. to work on the tactical ways we want to implement the goals 19:19:15 => andrewjroth 19:19:19 With the vision statement in mind, I think that goals 4, 6, and 14 would be important as they alight most closely with the vision statement (imho) 19:19:37 ? 19:19:56 maybe we can have a vote on all goals to build a diagram - as example a page in the fudcon booklet which people can fill and give back 19:20:17 => limburgher 19:20:20 vote your free most important or something like that 19:20:44 s/free/three 19:20:50 kital: I think that's an interesting thought, but unfortunately it's still the minority that can attend FUDCon :-/ 19:20:50 Could someone flesh out what specifically is meant by #6? 19:20:56 I'd rather votes came in as some form of "I want to work on this" rather than "Oh, oh, pick this one" 19:21:15 just a thought 19:21:15 abadger1999: +1 19:21:28 abadger1999: +1 19:21:30 smooge: while I tend to agree with that sentiment - I also cringe a bit at the thought given our traditionally 'leaderless'-type of organization. 19:21:40 limburgher: The idea is to setup infrastructure such that you can easily sync your own settings/documents/etc. from "the cloud" when logging in to a new computer 19:21:53 abadger1999 +1 19:21:54 abadger1999: +1 - /me is loathe to hand down edicts to people who aren't us to do $work 19:22:18 ! 19:22:38 => skvidal 19:22:43 ke4qqq: +1 19:22:50 I think #6 was kind of the idea of hosting infrastructure so Fedora Contributors could access their data from many places. 19:23:27 wrt to goal #6 - if we're focused on that - are we going to change our core apps to emphasize that, too? Is this a development decision? 19:23:36 +1 19:24:09 ? 19:24:17 and if this is a development decsion - do we have consensus and support from that various groups in red hat that would actually DO that? 19:24:22 skvidal: Like I said earlier, I think we should first decide which strategic goals are most important, and then focus on the specific tactics to achieve that goal 19:25:18 skvidal: I've made no attempt to reach consensus on development decisions yet, as I think that's a bit premature -- maybe I'm wrong though 19:25:24 ok I want to work on getting a charter that expresses how FAMSCO, FESCO, BOARDSCO and whatever else interact and their responsibilities.. so we don't spend a lot of meetings going "hey I thought that was their job" :) 19:25:54 smooge: agreed, let's consider that part of #1 (governance) 19:25:56 smooge: We had talked about having a hackfest session at FUDCon to do just that :-) 19:26:01 smooge: I'd love to help you with that - and think it's important 19:26:48 smooge, ke4qqq: I'd include "contributors" in that list of groups that interact to account for the "leaderless" (or lead-by-doing) organization. 19:27:17 with my own contributor hat on, I see #1, #3, #4 as being both important (and semi-related), and areas where I personally could work towards. 19:27:34 => limburgher 19:27:53 ? 19:28:07 rdieter: I tend to agree with that list - perhaps adding #10 19:28:36 So 6 is essentially analogous to a sort of NFS /home in a Fedora-controlled cloud? 19:29:03 limburgher: again, these are strategic goals, but that could possibly be one way to achive that. 19:29:20 limburgher: Same rough idea -- there are many different ways to implement that 19:29:23 Or dropbox sort of thing? Ok, I think I understand the intend. 19:29:33 => rbergeron 19:29:44 Has the board considered sending representatives to individual team meetings and asking those teams about what their "pie in the sky" goals might be, to see perhaps how the board might be able to support those goals? 19:29:45 The example given was dropbox-like. I can see other ways to implement it too. 19:29:59 limburgher: Sparkleshare is a FLOSS implementation similar to Dropbox -- again, one possible implementation 19:30:22 rbergeron: almost - we have sent out invites to some initial groups (fesco, famsco) to have convos re the goals 19:30:31 rbergeron: Absolutely! We're getting a meeting set up with FESCo first, and then we'll meet with FAmSCo, SIGs, etc. 19:30:33 rbergeron: yes this are action items from last board meeting 19:32:30 * abadger1999 notes that what we're doing is a little different than what rbergeron is saying. 19:32:44 We took the list of goals from our own ideas + feedback on fab-list 19:32:51 abadger1999: hence my response of 'almost' 19:32:53 Now we're taking those goals to the teams. 19:32:54 :) 19:33:20 In retrospect, I think her statement might work better -- go to the teams and ask for goals, then synthesize thm together. 19:34:02 b/c the teams are made up of the people who are actively doing work and should have the most say in the process/most likely to then do work to implement them. 19:34:02 abadger1999: or even better ask those teams to go to the indiv. contributors and see what they actually want to accomplish and have them filter those to us. 19:34:09 19:34:19 abadger1999: yep, more buy-in up front 19:34:23 abadger1999: come to think of it, lack of such synthesizing could very well be a source of some of conflict wrt direction we've experienced lately (ie, everyone's notion being different or contradictory) 19:35:12 abadger1999: though if for instance you and I started talking about $someinfraproject and got really excited about it, and started working on it - would board blessing really matter? 19:35:14 Well, I think maybe the teams could be largely consumed with $gettingstuffdone to the point that ... nobody is bringing things to the Board. 19:35:18 and the fact that many of us computer people have a hard time synthesizing 19:35:34 for these meetings. 19:35:35 rbergeron: very much true 19:35:51 Or, they think it's none of the board's business what they want to accomplish, and don't want any roadblocks plopped in their way. 19:36:20 ke4qqq: That's true. Maybe I see outlining goals as less determining the course of Fedora as helping to chart where we're unconsciously headed. 19:36:21 Obviously we know that's not the intent, but I think many people tend to just want to *do stuff* and not *present* what they want to get done. 19:36:47 abadger1999: +1 19:36:56 rbergeron: +1 to everything you've said. 19:37:06 rbergeron: +1 19:37:36 rbergeron: +1 19:37:40 abadger1999: ohhh interesting perspective - and I think such a chart could be very useful 19:39:16 with that in mind do we maybe want to... not start over but at least, clarify/rethink what we're asking of the teams that we've asked about the goals? 19:39:17 I'd be happy to take that on, how about compiling a list of groups to contact? brainstorm mode no 19:39:20 so should we perhaps consider revamping this process to do collection from SCo's SIGs initially 19:39:31 +1 abadger1999 19:39:38 mode on... that is. hee 19:40:11 abadger1999: we can do both, ask for feedback about ideas already compiled as well a solicit for more 19:40:17 19:40:18 abadger1999: I guess I'm OK with that, as long as it doesn't end up derailing the conversation 19:40:50 abadger1999: My *only* concern is having the process drag on for too many months 19:41:04 sure, can't wait forever. 19:41:13 I am just not interested in proposing tons of goals that no one has interest in accomplishing 19:41:17 jsmith: Okay I am interested in something what end result do we realistically (not ideally) hope to get out of the conversation? 19:41:49 jsmith: won't the process always be 'in process' with new goals being created, old ones being accomplished or abandoned? 19:42:00 Realistically, we'd have three or four of our fifteen goals that the Board, FAMSco, and FESCo all agree on 19:42:32 And we'd begin to talk with each of those groups about tactics for starting to accomplish said goals 19:42:33 I would like a clearer blue print of what we are trying to do and get to both short term and long term.. so that we can better communicate "join us if you want to go to X" and help those who watn to go to Y to get there elsewhere 19:42:35 ke4qqq: Absolutely! 19:43:24 smooge: +1 19:43:35 ke4qqq: And six months down the road, we might say "We've done pretty good with goals X and Y -- let's put Z on the list now" 19:44:04 smooge: we have traditionally been very afraid to say that - at least from my perspective. 19:44:05 * kital still thinks that some kind of vote could give a quantified direction at least 19:44:09 ke4qqq: This isn't meant to be carved in stone -- the idea is to focus our attention on a small number of priorities 19:44:17 jsmith: sure 19:44:18 smooge: If that's what we want, I think the goals really do need to come from the contributors, filtered through the teams before we state them. 19:45:03 * and synthesized by us before we state them. 19:45:23 abadger1999: +1 as well - provided it's not lost in the cacophony of voices 19:45:47 Is there any reason why both a top-down and bottom-up approach can't work in parallel 19:46:04 jsmith: indeed, no. do both 19:46:11 yeah... I cold see our job in synthesizing being... how do we take cacophony and turn it into something understandable. 19:46:18 I mean -- just because the Board says "These are the three goals we like" doesn't preclude other groups from meeting, talking, and sharing their goals as well, right? 19:46:25 jsmith: Sure... as long as the top down has a different goal. 19:46:40 Which I think you kind of have. 19:46:41 jsmith, I think in the past it has been shown that top down gets much more automatic pushback almost every time 19:47:08 jsmith: the only potential problem is that it could make the board seem irrelevant 19:47:14 * rdieter is afraid this may be getting derailed into a metadiscussion here 19:47:36 if our goals aren't aligned with the people doing the work 19:47:41 ie: I don't want to draw lines of this is what Fedora is working towards top-down. But I could see us saying "We think these goals are important places for Fedora to go" top down 19:47:56 rdieter: I agree -- we're 47 minutes into the meeting, and haven't really discussed the goals as much as the metadata 19:48:08 abadger1999: I absolutely agree -- these are not a mandate, these are a conversation starter 19:48:23 abadger1999: +1 agree, Fedora needs a clear direction for others to follow. 19:48:40 so, bad boy hat on... can be please get back to the topic at hand? talking about actual strategic goals again? 19:49:47 (though perhaps we've run out of discussion there...) 19:50:28 For me personally I want to work on the ones that touch on community building the most. For me those are 1, 4, 12 19:50:32 Does everyone agree that we're coming up with a list of three or four goals to use to start the conversation with FESCo/FAmSCo/SIGs, and that doesn't preclude other goals from being added? 19:50:46 agreed 19:50:54 jsmith: +1 agree 20:01:13 If it's something else, well, I guess it just lacks definition there, really. 20:02:14 rbergeron: While it might be largely a FAMSCo responsibility, that doesn't mean it's not a laudable goal for Fedora in general to be more transparent in that regard 20:02:36 rbergeron: the problem this is mostly only know to Ambassadors 20:02:42 s/know/known 20:02:53 Example: Fedora's community has a budget that is transparent, well-known, and easy to make requests of. Make it clear how to get money, who to ask for money ... Fedora is fiscally-transparent - where money is spent, what you can get funding for, and where you obtain funding. 20:03:06 Example: Ensure that contributors project-wide (and not just Ambassadors) recognize that there is funding available to further their Fedora-related work, and further create a culture of permission by default by enabling people to responsibly use small amount of budget without first having to ask for permission. Along the way, update and revise the processes for reimbursements globally. 20:03:49 and of course correct the mess with resources that we have right now with funding outside NA 20:04:06 contributors wait for ever to get their money 20:04:14 EMEA has no media for F14 20:04:21 because nobody answers 20:05:52 from the closed famsco trac instance 20:06:18 budget request was done in Oct 20:06:29 okay. well, i didn't mean to pull off track into details - I just thought more clarification might be good there. 20:06:34 last request from cwickert who has taken ownership 20:06:38 If we want to have media for FOSDEM, we really need to hurry up. I am even willing to pay the bill if somebody grantees that I will be reimbursed a) completely and b) in time. Unfortunately my last reimbursements were not in a timely manner. 20:06:49 yes just a example 20:07:08 but in EMEA we have not event the possibilities to produce media right now 20:07:31 and this is the reason why i and maybe also David think we should make this more professional 20:07:57 but sorry for diving into deep details 20:08:17 * kital shuts up 20:08:57 I think a plan exists, and the need certainly does - but I think it's largely outside our purview (as the board) and well within RHT's firewall 20:09:10 so, while fixing that crappage is laudable, I'm having a hard time considering this a good strategic goal for the project 20:09:13 are there decisions we need to make at this point? 20:09:27 rdieter: +1 - firefighting I fear 20:09:49 rdieter: good strategic goal - yes you are right, this is not 20:09:58 If we're going to present fesco/famsco with our "top 3-4" then we do. 20:10:55 So I'm going to +1 rdieter's proposal to pare down and suggest this is what we do: Board members list your top three. Then we'll discuss which ones we're willing to cut. 20:11:08 Sound reasonable? 20:11:26 Sounds great 20:11:34 (and the community can then mock our choices!) 20:11:49 or burn us in effigy :) 20:12:33 My top three are 1, 3, and 12 20:12:37 Mine: 1 4 12 20:13:50 1, 3, 12 20:14:10 mine were: 1 3 4 20:15:14 miner were 1, 3, 12 20:15:23 kital: ? 20:15:50 I see 12 building 4 20:16:35 ok than it is 3, 11, 13 20:17:30 smooge: nod, there are several that are closely related 20:17:31 Here's are irst list of Board members present: 1 3 4 11 12 13 20:17:59 12<->13 can join maybe 20:19:29 kital: that could work 20:19:33 I can see that. 20:22:37 * abadger1999 working on a wiki page for this 20:23:19 cool, given the lingering silence, perhaps we've reached a good stopping point? 20:23:42 seems we have 20:23:46 worksforme 20:23:46 yes 20:23:54 i will join the famsco meeting tomorrow 20:24:20 and see what they prioritize 20:24:52 ok - seems like there were questions - anything else before we get to those? 20:24:59 yay, I forget... when/how were we going to meet with fesco reps? 20:25:15 rdieter: 2 weeks from last mtg iirc 20:25:19 in irc 20:25:46 https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board_goals_2011 20:26:09 ok, good 20:26:30 There's five goals there. That seems managable even if we didn't hit our target of four. 20:26:50 yep 20:27:14 +1 20:27:18 we could probably do some gynastics to combine things more, but meh. 20:28:37 abadger1999: Works for me 20:28:47 abadger1999: I'm much more comfortable with five than I am with fifteen 20:28:58 OK, we're at the 90 minute mark. 20:29:14 Is everybody happy with what we've accomplished today? 20:29:19 Cool. I'll add some explanation about them (like -- people can suggest new ones), we'll be asking fesco/famsco/sigs for input/ etc. 20:30:01 I am good 20:30:08 mostly. It would be nice to figure out how we can avoid the misunderstanding of what we're trying to accomplish at the outset. 20:30:24 I am good as well - hope those that visited with questions are still here though 20:30:27 abadger1999: +1 20:30:52 Maybe that's mostly me -- jsmith plainly stated that at the beginning -- I was just bringing my prior misconceptions to the table. 20:31:54 Something to think about wrt spot's irc protocol I think. 20:31:59 that misconception or bias is pretty prevalent I fear, and always good to explain anyway - more transparent 20:32:00 (rather than now ;-) 20:32:21 20:34:40 OK, I propose we leave ten minutes for open Q&A, and then close the meeting 20:35:35 Any objections? 20:35:40 ... and Dandapani just left :-( 20:35:44 sounds like a winner 20:35:44 +1 from me 20:35:53 That's unfortunate :-( 20:36:04 #topic Open Q&A with the Board 20:37:03 Anybody else have questions? 20:37:05 Comments? 20:37:07 Concerns? 20:37:12 Rotton tomatoes? 20:37:35 Do you have any details about when the discussion about Spins will be happening at FUDCON? 20:37:59 I won't be there, but would try to be available at that time if I can. 20:38:13 brunowolff: I think it makes the most sense as a hackfest session. 20:38:16 good question, has anyone stepped up to lead that discussion yet? If not, I can offer to help out. 20:38:35 brunowolff: If you want to propose a particular time that works well for you, I'll be happy to make sure that gets reserved 20:38:39 Are those scheduled in advance? 20:38:54 A few of them are -- many of them are not yet scheduled 20:39:01 I think I saw most were going to be on Monday. 20:39:12 looks like mdomsch has signed on for that 20:39:21 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Tempe_2011#Agenda 20:39:30 The Future of Spins What should Spins be going forward? Everyone Matt Domsch 20:39:43 Typically I have only one work meeting every other Monday, so I can probably be free for an hour or so 20:39:51 without having to take a vacation day. 20:40:59 Sunday is probably OK. If I remember correctly there aren't any playoff games that day. 20:42:07 brunowolff: lol ;) 20:43:56 ? 20:44:16 Otherwise just knowing a bit in advance (so I wake up early enough) is helpful. Are the hackfests all going 20:44:28 to be scheduled on Saturday? 20:45:02 hackfests are Sun/Mon by the looks of it 20:45:12 technical sessions Sat/Sun 20:45:38 My question was ambiguous. I wanted to know when I would know when a hackfest is scheduled. 20:46:12 It looks like scheduling is scheduled for early Satuday, but I wasn't sure if that covered everthing. 20:46:13 ah, the scheduling usually does happen early the first day, yeah 20:47:02 That should be enough lead time. 20:48:32 => gholms 20:48:38 Does the Board support tacos or hotdogs? I can't seem to find a consensus amongst the Fedora groups I have asked. 20:49:07 gholms: I prefer tacos... but lots of people prefer the Beefy Miracle. 20:49:08 saving the hard stuff for last 20:49:09 Someone can thank Red Hat for having Brian Lane work on livecd-tools. 20:50:41 Hrm, must be a difficult decision indeed. :P 20:51:14 OK, anything else before we wrap up? 20:51:25 after much deliberation, while I do also much appreciate beefiness, I prefer tacos 20:51:27 gholms: Good carnitas is hard to beat so I vote tacos :-) 20:51:37 * abadger1999 notes he's updated https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board_goals_2011 to explain the purpose of the goals, where they're going next, etc. 20:51:39 tacos here as well 20:51:52 it's a wiki so feel free to edit if I've misrepresented something. 20:52:47 +4 for tacos? Good enough for me. Thanks! 20:53:06 abadger1999: looks good to me 20:53:28 OK folks... let's call it a meeting 20:53:35 Thanks again for your participation! 20:53:39 #endmeeting