On Wed, Jan 15, 2020 at 10:48:55AM -0000, Aleksandra Fedorova wrote:
First of all, i think this new message looks hostile, especially
this
part: "The Fedora Project will be a reference for everyone who shares this
vision", which reads as "If you share the vision, you must be in Fedora".
Oh! Like Ben, I also hadn't considered this interpretation. To parse it
carefully, note "a reference" not "_the_ reference". But I also
don't want
to have to tell people "no, we don't mean to be hostile -- you need to read
more carefully". Obviosuly that's not right. :)
But even it reworded I think the root of this disagreement lies in
the
perception, what the vision statement supposed to do.
It seems you are trying to make it sound more appealing or exciting. As
you see it as a way to invite new people.
Yes, that's true.
But mission statement or vision is different from a marketing
talking
point. It is not what attracts attention or curiosity, it is what binds us
together to do a specific thing.
Well, yes, but the vision statement *should* be an aspirational "binding".
And I don't see that thing in the proposed mission statement.
It is a hand wavy proclamation that says that Fedora Project's ultimate
goal is the World Peace and Prosperity. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely
support the goal :) But what makes Fedora to be Fedora is the way how
exactly we are trying to help to reach this goal.
Well, remember, the vision statement does not stand alone. It goes with the
values (our foundations) and the mission statement, as well as our strategic
plan and so on down. The Vision statement *isn't* supposed to say how we are
reaching our goal -- it *is* the statement of our desired result.
During the council meeting I gave some examples, including one I found when
trying to look for the GNOME project mission and vision and then landed on a
page selling garden gnomes. Their mission and
vision (extracted from a little bit over-wordiness) are:
Our Mission is to create and market garden gnomes that will bring a bit of
humor and peace to people’s lives and will inspire deeper political,
environmental, and spiritual awareness and reflection.
Our Vision for the future is a world where humans, animals, garden gnomes,
and other yard art live together in peace and harmony.
So, yes, World Peace and Prosperity might be in there a little bit. :)
Moreover, I have an alternative proposal [1] which I haven't got
a lot of
feedback yet.
It maybe worded differently, but in short, I'd like to see the
"Integrate
First" statement added to our core values, somewhere next to the Upstream
First thing.
I'm not convinced that I agree with this as a basic tenant, really. But
that's kind of a separate issue.... the vision really _should_ be about
change in the world, not about the specifics of what we're building.
And I prefer to see Fedora's mission not to try and take over the
world,
but to fill in this gap, based on previous successful experience over many
years, but also together with finding new ways, new workflows and even new
definitions for it.
We also wanted the statement to not be "world domination" — I agree with you
on that. Actually, I don't think that what you're saying here is _that_ far
off from what we ended up with!
--
Matthew Miller
<mattdm(a)fedoraproject.org>
Fedora Project Leader