[fab] Packaging Committee/FESCo communication

[Josh Boyer]

On Thu, 2006-07-06 at 15:51 -0400, Jesse Keating wrote:
> On Thursday 06 July 2006 14:32, Josh Boyer wrote:
> > I realize that there are members of FESCo on the Packaging Committee.
> > And it's not as if I think the Packaging Committee is a bad idea, or are
> > doing things wrong.  However I think the communication channels between
> > the two committees should be a bit more than "here's your new
> > guidelines,  enjoy."
> >
> > Thoughts, comments?
> 
> It should be up to the FESCO representation in the Packaging committee to keep 
> FESCO abreast of whats to be discussed, how it effects Extras and what 
> FESCO's opinions might be.  Ditto for Red Hat's representative re Red Hats 
> interest (for Core and RHEL).  Its also the representatives responsibility to 
> bring new issues brought up by FESCO, or Red Hat, to the packaging committee 
> to discuss.

Sure, I agree with all of that.  But there isn't time allowed to do so.
Decisions are made in the meeting and the _results_ are shared with
FESCo.  In order for FESCo representation to really be a representation
of what FESCo feels on the matter, time must be given for FESCo to look
over the discussion.  Then the reps can take the outcome of the FESCo
discussion back to the Packaging Committee.  I'd venture that in the
majority of cases, the response would be "sounds fine."  But it's
important to allow for that response.

Perhaps there should be a period of time where the outcomes are shared
with FESCo/RH before announcing them to the general public.  That way
you'd at least get some time for commenting.

Maybe it's a coincidence that the changelog format was discussed and
decided upon without anyone knowing it would happen.  I'm just trying to
prevent something like that from happening again.

Again, it's not that I think the Packaging Committee is doing anything
wrong.  I think the communication process between FESCo (and the RH side
too for that matter) needs to be a bit more thought out.  When I asked
what the relationship of the Packaging Committee is to FESCo, the
response I got was "lord and serf".  That is wrong IMHO.

josh