Peter Tribble wrote: > On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 6:44 PM, Michelle Olson <michelle.olson at sun.com> > wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> Great meeting yesterday, I'm extremely excited and encouraged by the >> discussion we started just toward the end of the hour related to roles and >> priorities. >> >> To continue that conversation, we have a perfect opportunity this year to >> build community by focusing on contributor priorities related to the key >> areas that match our unique roles: >> >> ON gate work & related contributor tools -JBeck? >> Bug tracking improvements for contributors -Valerie? >> Package contribution automation & processes -Jim? >> Static and dynamic content contributions and management -Michelle >> Inbound contributor issues & solution sanity-checking -Peter? >> Contributor and core contributor recognition & partnering -Lynn? >> >> Adding in the deep expertise and global networks Simon and Plocher bring, we >> have a truly powerhouse board and extended team! >> >> Let me know what you think of this 'strawman' set of priorities and roles >> and any thoughts you have on potential short and long-term goals for the key >> area you'd like to tackle. >> > > I think Simon tried to bring this up during the meeting, but in what sense > are those OGB roles as opposed to what people are doing already? >
I think these are natural areas where each of us can take on leadership roles that advocate and spread the word of how participants and contributors get involved. > There are a wide range of improvements underway. As the OGB, we > need to be aware of what's going on and what stage the efforts have > progressed to - where things are going well and where things are held > up. We then need to make sure that the word gets out about the > successes, and do what we can to help the areas that are struggling. > Agreed, we are well-positioned to get the word out about the areas being improved. There will always be some element of communication around how a change benefits the community and how they can best use it or get involved in it. There is usually also a discussion about future RFEs or continued improvement and questions that need to be addressed when things change, and the OGB leadership part of the role is to help the community through change in the bigger picture of what is happening. That extra blog or presentation or podcast that helps folks to better understand the goal and problem we aim to solve and most importantly how they can participate in it. > As a board, we need to look above and beyond the implementation work. > Agreed, and because we own some pretty interesting contribution programs among the 7 of us, (they map pretty closely to the priorities poll items) we are in a good position to help lead conversations about the plans for what we're doing and to enable the greater transparency and communication. > Take bug-tracking. (I'm not picking on it, I just feel more comfortable > on that topic than some others.) So, we do the task and get a great > bug-tracking system. How can we go from that implementation to > enable the wider community as a whole to take advantage of it? > We could have regular bug jams; triage days; focus areas; awards > for those finding the most bugs. That's the sort of thing that needs to > be done through leadership and community-wide organization > Exactly! This is where I'm going with the idea. Building on this example. I think bug jams is a great idea. Let's say we decide we need triage days, focus areas and awards. We need someone well-positioned to lead these things, to plan it out and let people know when things are happening , get them excited about the awards, and encourage participation and make sure feedback that gets posted gets a response and gets to the right folks. That is the higher-order bit: pro-actively planning and then bringing the information and details of change to the community (as far ahead of the change as possible) so they can understand it and so it won't have a negative impact on their productivity. And moreover, building some community around it, making it a positive place to be because they know that they can talk to you about a bug issue every Thursday in the triage chatroom, that you will respond positively to their efforts and try to do something about it. Thanks, Michelle
