[Fedora-spins] Board SWG questions for Spins SIG

[Matt Domsch]

As you may be aware, the Fedora Project Board is trying to set a more
clear vision for what Fedora is, and should be going forward.  One
aspect of this conversation is Fedora's target audience.  As Spins and
Remixes specifically seek to use Fedora to reach a particular audience
or cater to specific use cases, we seek your input to help guide our
thinking.

Your responses to these questions would be appreciated.  Fellow Board
member Colin Walters and I have agreed to poll the Spins SIG and
report back to the Strategic Working Group and the Board as a whole.



Board-level Question:
Can Spins/SIGS or Fedora remixes define their own target audience?

Background

The Board has been working on defining a target audience for
Fedora. In response to this, some people feel that Fedora should allow
sub-groups to define their own target audience. Or even more strongly
that Spins/SIGs should be the only groups defining target audience; in
other words, the Board should not be defining one. An example mail
supporting this position is this mail from Toshio [1].

However, the potential conflict between a Board target audience and a
SIG target audience is still theoretical. No SIG appears to have
explicitly disagreed with the "working" target audience proposal.

Possible Solutions

   1. Board sets target audience broadly, spins tailor to a subset
   thereof.

   2. Board sets target audience broadly, spins tailor to either a
   subset thereof, or to additional audiences outside that scope so
   long as there are no conflicts.

   3. Board does not set target audience, leaves it to each Spin to
   set their specific target audience.
         1. requires spins to be much more than consumers of Fedora
   content.
         2. audience of some spins may overlap. That's OK.
         3. audience of some spins may technically conflict. How to
   resolve conflicts? Spins SIG -> FESCo -> Board.


As members of the Spins SIG, how do you view the above, and how would
you like to see Spins interact with the larger Project with respect to
defining target audiences?




Board-level Question:
Can Spins/SIGS or Fedora remixes change the code enough to meet their
goals?

Background

In the present situation, Spins must take all of their content from
the official Fedora repositories. Remixes may take content from
wherever, and modify as they see fit, but may not use the primary
Fedora trademarks.

Questions for Spins and the Spins SIG

Given the present situation:

   1. Has any Spin found the present situation unduly restrictive?
         1. If so, how specifically? 
   2. Has any Spin found they cannot address their target audience
         properly?
         1. If so, in what way?
         2. Is the root problem that all packages must be in the
         official repositories? 
   3. How are you addressing this today?
   4. How would you like to address this in the future?
   5. Are the resources you would need readily available?
         1. If not, what would you need to properly address this? 
   6. Is the transition from "Spin" to "Remix" onerous?
         1. If so, what can be done to make it less so? 




[1] http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/advisory-board/2009-October/007430.html


Thanks,
Matt & Colin