We are currently planning the online Parrot Developers Summit scheduled to take place on Sunday Dec 05 at 2300 UTC in #parrotsketch. PDSes are quarterly meetings in which we assess our progress between supported releases and map out our long-term efforts, particularly those over the next three months.
We neglected to hold Summits on a regular schedule over the last year, so many of our contributors may be unfamiliar with the purpose or format of a PDS. As mentioned above, a PDS has both a backward-looking aspect (assessment/retrospective) and a forward-looking aspect (planning). Since online meetings are effective only if they are limited in their length, we propose to spend no more than 45 minutes on assessing our progress since our last PDS (11 April 2010) and at least 75 minutes on planning for the 3.0 and 3.3 releases, and beyond. Because of the limited time and the particular focus on the next two supported releases we won't be able to discuss every topic in depth. Before the date of the meeting, people should send suggestions of topics to discuss to parrot-dev. The PDS organizers and team leaders will select the major topics to be discussed. Topics not selected for the PDS can be discussed elsewhere, such as on the parrot-dev list, in #parrot, or at the weekly #parrotsketch meetings. For the retrospective part, we'll be asking questions about what we have done well as a community, and what we have not done well in the previous few months. Also, people could present information about things that we've accomplished as a community in that time. Things like the number of commits we've had, benchmarked performance trends over previous months, code metrics from previous months (SLOC, test coverage, etc) would all be good to present, if anybody is able to prepare them. When deciding what to discuss during the planning session at PDS, preference will be shown towards projects for which there are either existing plans/designs or for which people are able to write short opinion pieces. A 2 hour meeting is not suitable for brain-storming new ideas or creating new designs, but it can be useful for reviewing existing designs and attracting a team of contributors to help develop a new project. If you have a project which you would like to attract some helpers for, or if you have an idea for a new project and want to build some momentum behind it, this is the time and place to do that. The best time to hold a Summit is near the time of a supported release, so we have plenty of time to plan for and implement changes for the subsequent supported release. If we have a good rule of thumb for this, scheduling may become more regular and require less effort to prepare. For instance, the second sunday after a supported release gives us this schedule for 2011: Sunday, January 30, 2011 Sunday, May 1, 2011 Sunday, July 31, 2011 Sunday, October 30, 3011 Please come prepared to discuss these dates at the December 5 meeting, as setting dates for our PDSes in 2011 will be the first item on the agenda. Please send all ideas, questions, or comments to parrot-dev. All input is appreciated. I look forward to seeing many Parrot developers, contributors and well-wishers at the PDS on November 5th. --Andrew Whitworth _______________________________________________ http://lists.parrot.org/mailman/listinfo/parrot-dev
