Fedora Board Recap 2008-JUL-15

[Paul W. Frields]

On Thu, 2008-07-17 at 19:57 -0800, Jeff Spaleta wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 6:15 PM, Josh Boyer <jwboyer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I know for a fact that the people on the Board are more than capable of
> > thinking hard about this.  And you apparently have already done so.  At
> > the very least disclose the discussion you had that made you feel so
> > confident that cross-compiling could be accomplished.
> 
> If I remember the conversation accurately, I believe spot's comments
> concerning his personal use koji to build a perl branch assuaged my
> primary concern on whether a space can be built for this in a workable
> manner.  Though honestly, I'm somewhat crap with voices so it might
> not have been spot.  A more international grouping on the Board would
> have made it easier to know whose talking when on calls based on
> accents.  

I believe you're correct, it was Spot.

> And you are absolutely correct, the private calls suck for
> this sort of stuff. We know that. We cut discussion short on
> implementation details specifically because we are sensitive to the
> fact that its a private call.

We did try to keep the conversation focused on the political concerns of
whether, and to what extent, we should allow, encourage, or provide
resources for cross-platform toolchains.  The Board members, including
Jef, have brought up several different facets of these issues in his
previous messages here and on fedora-devel-list.

> If you missed some of my back and forth with Richard Jones concerning
> the mingw policy 'discussion', do to the over lengthy nature of my
> posts, I could attempt to summarize my personal feelings on things,
> just as long as everyone understands that I am doing so at the behest
> of FESCo and not attempting to usurp authority. Please understand that
> I am trying to be sensitive to the recent discussions concerning how
> the Board and FESCo are meant to work together.  I've no problem
> making personal suggestions but I want to be as considerate as I can
> to FESCo's role as an authority. Obviously I didn't do as well as I
> could have separating my personal input to FESCo from the Board
> mandate in my previous post. So I am somewhat gun shy to drop more of
> personal braindump in FESCo's lap prior to them even taking up the
> issue formally and talking amongst themselves.

I think everyone realizes you speak for yourself.  Much like Seth, only
with ten times the verbosity. ;-)

> What I would prefer to do is make sure that I am at the FESCo meeting
> where this topic is introduced, so I can act as a resource to FESCo.
> We should make sure that spot is there as well I guess.  If FESCo
> wants me to personally tap me to draft up my braindump on the
> packaging policy, by working with Richard Jones and the other
> developers who have initiated this.. outside of the public lists...I
> can do that, as long as I haven't burned too many bridges in the fab
> conversation leading up to this moment.

The Board at large has obviously has an interest in this topic from the
perspective of the Fedora Project's mission.

Spot as Fedora Engineering Manager has an interest in being at next
week's FESCo meeting.  Since IIRC it's the kickoff for the new FESCo,
he'll want to make sure they know he's available as an informal advisor.
He can ensure any implementation details they discuss are informed by
the resources available from the Red Hat Engineering perspective.

Any community member, including someone who also happens to be a Board
member, can show up for FESCo meetings, add items to their agenda, and
make proposals.  (No fair voting or pulling rank though, just because
you're on the Board.) ;-)  FESCo is there to decide on the technical
merits and implementation.  If a proposal comes from a Board member who
understands the Board's position on a topic, that hopefully cuts a step
out of any potential processing.  I don't think there's a point in
waiting for FESCo to ask you to do something.  Just prepare something,
and tell people about it so they can discuss it before a meeting.

This is a great opportunity for the new FESCo -- assuming I'm correct
that next week will be the new group's first gathering -- to set the
tone for their meetings.  Seeing as how it's Friday already, any
proposal might not have any discussion time before that first meeting.
Jef, if I were you, I'd work with Richard et al. to have something ready
next week, so it could be discussed substantially outside of the FESCo's
block of meeting time and not consume their whole hour.

-- 
Paul W. Frields
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://paul.frields.org/   -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
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