[Ambassadors] How do you enforce someone to work on something?

[Paul W. Frields]

On Mon, 2008-11-17 at 09:59 +0800, Yuan Yijun wrote:
> Also Chitlesh proposed a very good idea that if we do not have another
> work group but rely on Infrastructure team, we can benefit a lot.
> Actually pfrields told me the same thing regarding copyright
> assignment (on docs list). The website we are constructing is
> targeting at Chinese speaking users, is it feasible to ask
> Infrastructure team to help a local activity?

I believe we discussed licensing, and not copyright assignment.  The
difference may seem confusing but it's important.  In the Fedora
Project, we don't ask contributors to assign their copyright.  They
retain the copyright, but license their work in a way that allows us to
maintain its freedom for everyone.

I'm in favor of having localized portals and information for different
nationalities.  We should strive to provide those resources through the
official Fedora Project.  I don't mean having different sets of web
applications that are run by different localized groups.  Rather, we
should be trying to provide translatable web sites, a translatable wiki,
and so on that allows groups to use the already existing Infrastructure.

Our Infrastructure group is extremely skilled and knowledgeable.  But
they are small, with a finite amount of resources.  They can't possibly
maintain a lot of separate sites for local activities.  That's why it
makes much more sense to use and improve our existing applications, like
our web site, wiki, etc., in a way that makes them useful to all local
groups.

> Technically, we don't have our own machine, but hosted various
> services (forum,news,wiki,etc.) on Bluehost, the maintainance is hard
> for them too.

Thus the points above -- other than forums, which are somewhat liberated
by not having to be hosted in the Fedora Project, we are trying to move
to a model where all of our resources can be localized.

> Another concern is here people tends to think CLA is over complicated,
> so we use public domain, FDL or CC, and CLA is not a must on the new
> website -- but I don't think FP will accept such a job if these
> contributors are not signing CLA.

I'm sorry people think the CLA is over complicated -- it is a legal
document, and agreement between contributors and Red Hat, that allows
Fedora to keep your contributions free.  I think, though, that you are
mixing up legal concepts again here.  Public domain, FDL, and CC are
*licenses* -- ways for you to individually control the ways that people
can reuse your creations.  The CLA is not itself a license.  It's an
agreement that allows Red Hat and the Fedora Project to maintain the
freedom of your contributions.

Translating legal documents is a very challenging operation.  To retain
its validity, any translation of a legal document must generally be
reviewed by attorneys in each language involved.  This is an expensive
and time-consuming process that Fedora simply can't afford.  Therefore
if you or anyone you know has questions about the CLA, you can always
take them to fedora-legal-list and we'll explain whatever's unclear:

http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-legal-list 

> BTW, I wonder how India community got so many Ambassadors, not many
> people in China can pass the CLA step and they have complained a lot
> to me. Maybe they are too easy to get bored, too impatient, while the
> rules are rather complex. I think it will help if all steps are
> localized and accompanied with graph or magic wizards...

I'm not sure I understand this part.  We've gone to great effort to make
the CLA process very easy.  Now you simply go to the web site, fill out
your information, and read and agree to the CLA by clicking a button:

https://admin.fedoraproject.org/accounts 

Is that really a complex operation?  It seems basically the same to me 
as the procedure you go through to use any web site or forum software.


-- 
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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