From kde-core-devel Wed Dec 20 17:22:05 2006 From: "Aaron J. Seigo" Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:22:05 +0000 To: kde-core-devel Subject: death to the TWG, long live the TWG! Message-Id: <200612201022.06484.aseigo () kde ! org> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-core-devel&m=116663535522447 MIME-Version: 1 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="--nextPart2227211.yJYoJFY88l" --nextPart2227211.yJYoJFY88l Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Boundary-01=_+EXiF8YEiF1411q" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline --Boundary-01=_+EXiF8YEiF1411q Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline hello =3D) the technical working group (TWG) was founded out of discussions had at the= =20 2005 annual general meeting of the KDE e.V. assembly. we had a trial run of= =20 it with a charter and everything, however it hit some rocky ground. namely: - it turns out that the charter of the TWG wasn't clearly (enough) in line= =20 with the jobs of the TWG - the people involved with the TWG were mostly the same people who were=20 previously too busy and it turns out (shock!) that bestowing charters doesn= 't=20 magically make people able to do more things ;) - the fact that the TWG was an elected body made up of e.V. members drove= =20 subtle schisms through the project the latter point is an important one. electing someone doesn't make them fe= el=20 more motivated and responsible compared to them stepping up and taking on=20 personal ownership of a task. this election mechanism was also borne to som= e=20 degree by the level of paranoia in our community about such structures; the= =20 non-elected working groups have done really well for their respective topic= s,=20 as a set of comparison data points. so at the last aKademy, several pillars of community such as Coolo, David a= nd=20 Dirk, got together and thought long and hard about these issues. they came = up=20 with a new draft charter. you can find it attached to this email. the most important points in it are 3.x, as they outline what the TWG is=20 actually supposed to be doing and chunk it out into separate jobs each of=20 which one or more people can take on. when the new TWG election was called within the e.V. the issues coming out = of=20 our first run at it simply reared their heads: who would step up? turns out= =20 the same old people; after some prodding and threats of cancelling the whol= e=20 thing some new people stepped up. of course there was also: oh no, not more= =20 voting! but for me the most telling part was how it was accompanied by peop= le=20 talking at me (and i'm sure, others) on irc and email about how evil and=20 schism inducing these evil nasty working groups were. (cue the violin music) so at the e.V. board meeting last month in germany we decided to pull our=20 support for the TWG as it was formulated. understand, the e.V. only took th= is=20 on because the community by and large had completely and utterly failed to = do=20 so. so, now that the e.V. will not be coordinating this much needed work ..= =2E=20 now what? well, if you read through the charter you'll see what needs to be done. it = was=20 drafted by those who have been doing it for years (to all of our benefit), = so=20 i'm certain you'll hear the same wisdom in those words that i do. our challenge to you, the community (which we are a part of, so it's also=20 something of a challenge to ourselves ;), is to form up a voluntary body of= =20 people who are taking on the responsibilities outlined in the new TWG draft= =20 charter and help ensure the future success of KDE. there are already people lining up to on parts of this, and i salute them w= ith=20 my support. they will be introducing themselves on this list along with the= ir=20 ideas for implementation. however, they need more bodies and more energy. i= =20 urge you to answer the call. =2D-=20 Aaron J. Seigo humru othro a kohnu se GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43 =46ull time KDE developer sponsored by Trolltech (http://www.trolltech.com) --Boundary-01=_+EXiF8YEiF1411q Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; name="twg_charter-rev2.1.txt" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="twg_charter-rev2.1.txt" Charter of the Technical Working Group of the KDE e.V. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D 1 Purpose The purpose of the Technical Working Group (TWG) is to define and execute= the official software releases of KDE. It should also support and guide the processes of taking technical decisions within the KDE project. It has to= make sure that the open source development process is kept intact and that the= KDE community is involved in all important decisions. 2 Open Source Process The TWG has to respect, support and take into account the open source development process. This in particular means that it should support peer-review, maintainership, the "those who do the work decide" practice = and strengthen the responsibilities and initiative of the individual contribu= tors. The TWG should also respect and coordinate with existing decision making groups and processes where they exist in sub groups or sub projects of KD= E. The TWG should also make sure that specific experts, especially those who work on the topics under decision, are involved in the decision making process. 3 Responsibilities 3.1 Release Schedule The TWG is responsible for setting release schedules for the official K= DE releases. This includes release dates, deadlines for individual release steps and restrictions for code changes. The TWG should coordinate release dates with the marketing and press ef= forts of KDE. 3.2 Definition of Release =20 The TWG defines what code is included in the official KDE releases. It decides which modules are released and which features are included base= d on the feature plan and criteria for inclusion of features. The criteria s= hould be documented and publically available. The maintainers of the code hav= e to be involved in the decision making process. =20 The TWG decides which translations are included in a release. Other gro= ups concerned with translations have to be involved in the decision. 3.3 Release Management =20 The TWG assigns one or more release managers for coordination of the official KDE releases. The release managers should coordinate with developers and packagers to organize packages for the release. They sho= uld also take care of branching and tagging the source code repository and prepare the source code packages released to the distributors and the public. 3.4 Reviewing applications The TWG oversees which application and libraries are included in the mo= dules of the source code repository. It should support existing decision maki= ng processes and make sure that decisions are taken in a coordinated and consistent way in the best interest of the KDE project. If it is not possible to reach consensus about individual decisions the TWG can specifically decide about inclusion of new applications and exclusion of obsolete, redundant or unmaintained applications. The maintainers of the applications have to be involved in the decision mak= ing process. The TWG is directly responsible for the core modules (kdelibs, kderevie= w=20 and kdebase). For other modules it should leave the responsibility to=20 module maintainers or specific decision making groups, where they exist. The TWG takes care of inter-module issues, balances interests between modules and oversees th= e modules released together in the official KDE releases as a whole. 3.5 Software Dependencies The TWG decides about external or inter-module software dependencies. The TWG has to ensure that concrete decisions about tools and deployed = versions are made and adhered to. All decisions should be taken transparently, involve the KDE community, in particular specific experts, and respect = the needs of the various KDE contributors. 3.6 Communicating and moderating The TWG summarizes decision making processes and helps finding consensus and moderates important discussions which affect greater areas of KDE. = It should act as a technical contact for KDE in general. 4 Members The TWG consists of five elected members. They are elected by the members= hip of the KDE e.V. Only members of the KDE e.V. can be voted for the TWG. In additi= on, any of the voted members can select additional people to become part of the T= WG and act in the role of the TWG. 4.1 Elections The members of the TWG are elected by the membership of the KDE e.V. by online vote. The general rules for online votes on persons apply. Members of the TWG are elected for a term of one year. =20 The board of the KDE e.V. is responsible for the execution of the elect= ion. 4.2 Extraordinary Elections =20 If at least seven members of the KDE e.V. demand an extraordinary elect= ion of the members of the TWG, the board of the KDE e.V. dissolves the membership of the TWG and holds an election of new members even if the = term of one year has not passed yet. =20 5 Transparency The decision making process and other activities of the TWG should be transparent to the membership of the KDE e.V. and to the KDE community at large. The TWG should regularly report its activities to the KDE community and publically document all decisions taken. =20 The TWG should involve the KDE community in the decision making process at all times. Discussions should preferably be held on public mailing lists = like kde-core-devel. =20 All policies on which decisions are based should be documented and public= ally available. =20 6 Coordination The TWG has to coordinate with other KDE e.V. working groups and the boar= d of the KDE e.V. on all matters which do not exclusively fall under the responsibility of the TWG. The TWG should also provide the means to coordinate between groups working on different modules or different applications where no sufficient coordination mechanisms exist. --Boundary-01=_+EXiF8YEiF1411q-- --nextPart2227211.yJYoJFY88l Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQBFiXE+1rcusafx20MRAiS/AJsFxAF2UTlGiieJ3aeyAn3DIRRT7gCcCfmB jrAPx0iICTEwY4Wf+9TVgqI= =vPKp -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --nextPart2227211.yJYoJFY88l--