Fedora Board Recap 2009-06-11

[Toshio Kuratomi]

On 06/11/2009 12:34 PM, Paul W. Frields wrote:
> 
> == What is Fedora ==
> * last discussion:
>   http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Meeting:Board_meeting_2009-05-21

Is this the proposal being pursued from that discussion?
"""
spot: Suggest that GNOME Desktop spin be explicitly acknowledged as
default ("first among equals") -- Changes to benefit other Spins that
create a conflict should be arbitrated by FESCo, with guidance that the
GNOME Desktop spin wins if all else is equal. If those changes are not
amenable to the GNOME desktop SIG, then they go to FESCo for
arbitration. If FESCo feels that the change is worthwhile, they should
escalate to the Board for final decision.
"""
> * Chris is still chasing it down
> * Desktop team meeting today covered this in part
> * Nothing in writing yet
> ** ACTION: Chris Aillon to have something ready June 25

If so, is this really within the Board's jurisdiction or is it stepping
into an area that they've handed over to FESCo?  Defining a target
audience is definitely Board material.  But defining how to address that
audience (The GNOME Spin is the default spin, technical changes that
create conflict are arbitrated by FESCo... but that arbitration is only
binding on the non-GNOME party.  If the GNOME Desktop spin disagrees
with FESCo's ruling, it then goes to the Board) seems to be reaching
into implementation and the technical realm.

If, for instance, the Board decided that our goal is wooing more
developers to use Fedora and our default audience is Windows
programmers; perhaps an Eclipse based spin is a better implementation of
that policy or KDE since its C++ and distributed on Windows or WXGTK or....

To me, the overarching goals and ideas of what Fedora is is at a higher
level than a particular spin.  It should be something that we can use
for many, many years as it's an enunciation of the ideals that Fedora is
building on no matter how the technical landscape changes because the
ideas are about our relation to society, our users, and ourselves.  This
vision of what Fedora is seems like just the thing that the Board should
be working on.

Implementing these goals as a specific default spin; a method of
arbitrating disputes; whether to install codeina or not -- are more
changable.  They are based on the technical realities of the present.
But as technologies change, upstream projects evolve, and our developers
decide which technical things to devote their time to work on the
implementations need to change with them.  And they need to be changed
by people who are charged with dealing with the technical aspects of the
distribution and can make decisions based on how it will affect the
programs, user experience, and developers of the distribution in support
of the overarching goals.

-Toshio

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