On Tuesday 27 April 2010 10:16:07 Quim Gil wrote: > The plan is to have in few weeks a first complete MeeGo release followed > by a roadmap to work on the next release. Once this is out the MeeGo > project shouldn't have any obstacle to have all the daily work and > routines in the open.
I am very disappointed in this. I really expect a project which is sponsored by the Linux Foundation to have **all** discussion on public mailing lists. No exceptions. Each MeeGo subsystem should have its own mailing list, visible for anyone who is interested. I have no problem with benevolent dictators -- I have a problem with calling MeeGo an "open project" if decisions being made behind closed doors, particularly technical decisions. If there is some concern over the amounts of traffic on public lists then you could require some sort of qualification or sponsorship for the privilege of sending to the lists: but the conversations must be visible for all! Of course, if that is not what Intel and Nokia want to do, they are perfectly at liberty to run the project behind closed doors -- but then stop pretending the project is open (the code may be open, but the project is not)! If that is what Intel and Nokia want to do then the Linux Foundation should have nothing to do with the project. I expected open discussion, on public mailing lists, from the day of the original announcement that the Linux Foundation was endorsing the project. I was told that wasn't practical and so then I expected it from the day of the Day 1 code drop. Now we are being told it will happen after the first complete release. I am afraid that I don't believe you any more! > There might still be some areas under the shadow, but always related to > new developments e.g. imagine the arrival of a new cool UX category or > key platform feature. Once they are released they go to open business as > usual. That is not acceptable if you want the privilege of calling the project an open project. If you want to be able to keep some developments secret, that is fine but then it is not an open project, it is a closed project which chooses to release code with an open source licence. Make up your minds. Either model can work but it is not acceptable to pretend you are using one model and actually run the other. If you want to be able to do things in secret then you are choosing not to run an open project. That may meet all your goals but it may put off some potential contributors and collaborators. Your decision. > - One that is quite unique now: two big teams having to sync on 1001 > little things before going public & common. I do not think that that justifies not having all discussions visible to all. However, maybe I am wrong. In any case, the question is: when will the project operation and all discussions be completely open (no exceptions)? > - One that will be around basically always: marketing factors making > company X or even the MeeGo project itself to go for a sound release > instead of an open development since the first line of code. I have no problem with decisions being made by the commercial priorities of the companies who are investing most resources in the project. Just not behind closed doors: any decision affecting an open project must be immediately public! Preferably it will have been discussed on an open list in advance but it may not be (at the risk of annoying some contributors who dislike the decision and choose to leave the project). Graham _______________________________________________ MeeGo-dev mailing list MeeGo-dev@meego.com http://lists.meego.com/listinfo/meego-dev
