GNOME Foundation Members:
At two previous GNOME Foundation IRC meetings, there has been discussion about how to approach the Desktop Summit[1] going forward. At the October 26th IRC meeting, Jon McCann spoke about his concerns about the Desktop Summit.[2] At the November 23rd meeting, Dave Neary (who was also very involved in making the past Desktop Summit happen), highlighted that there are real benefits to sharing facilities and that concerns can be fixed.[3] Dave pointed out that it would be best if a decision could be made sooner than later, since it is hard to start putting together bids for 2014 if the scope of the event is not clear. In support of having a Desktop Summit, the survey results taken at the event did report that a strong majority of attendees felt the event was a success and wanted it to continue at the 2-year interval. At the last GNOME Foundation Advisory board meeting, there was also strong support with only one advisory board representative against. The approving advisory board representatives felt that combining GUADEC and Akademy makes it easier for them to coordinate (e.g. sending people) and they appreciate that a combined event eases their ability to sponsor. Also, the past two Desktop Summit events have been profitable. The biggest complaints about the Desktop Summit seem to be: 1. It subtracts momentum from the GNOME brand and community. With GNOME 3 to focus on, the community needs to more focus on making GNOME 3 a success, less on collaboration. 2. It is hard to measure what specific collaborative benefits are being made possible by the Desktop Summit. It is hard to point to specific advances that have been accomplished. Some have concerns that not a lot of collaboration is actually being done. The GNOME Foundation board of directors has been discussing this topic at length[4]. The board is divided with 3 directors believing that the event needs to be organized significantly differently to continue, 3 directors believing that the survey results and advisory board discussions indicate the will of the Foundation community, and 1 director undecided.[5] In discussion, the following options have been suggested as ways to improve the event. 1. To not have a large combined GNOME+KDE event, and to instead have a smaller Desktop Summit or focused hackfest(s) with a more clear agenda to work on specific and measurable collaborative tasks. GUADEC and Akademy would continue as separate events. 2. To arrange the Desktop Summit so that it is more of a co-located event. The GNOME and KDE events are separate but overlap on certain days. For example, GUADEC could happen first and continue for several days, then a few combined days of Desktop Summit followed by several days of Akademy. This setup would likely be more complicated for bidding, since it would likely require a more dynamic space to accommodate the shifting needs. 3. The GNOME community has been having trouble finding volunteers to help make events successful lately. Some people like Dave Neary, Lennart Poettering, and Ekaterina Gerasimova did a great job volunteering to make the last Desktop Summit a success. However, the fact that there were too few volunteers engaged caused some real issues. Many of the things GNOME folks have complained about the last Desktop Summit were caused more by a lack of GNOME volunteers helping than anything else. For a Desktop Summit to be successful, we need to more clearly see that the GNOME community is more interested to engage and wanting to get involved. The board would like for the Foundation membership to help discuss and decide whether it makes sense to move forward with having a Desktop Summit. Although the Desktop Summit survey results indicated a strong majority were supportive of the current format, we want to want to understand what plans would engage GNOME Foundation members and volunteers the most. If we choose to have a Desktop Summit, we need to consider how the event needs to evolve to be more effectively collaborative and whether we think it should keep to the current 2-year schedule. The board has some concerns that this topic may be controversial, or generate flames. So, please, before responding take a moment to collect your thoughts and try to avoid rash responses. Keep in mind the GNOME Code of Conduct[6]. Thanks, Brian --- [1] https://www.desktopsummit.org/ [2] https://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/IRC20111026 [3] https://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/IRC20111123 [4] https://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/20110809 https://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/20110823 https://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/20111018 [5] https://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/20111101 [6] https://live.gnome.org/CodeOfConduct/ _______________________________________________ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list