Community Council Statement: Jonathan Riddell
elfy
elfy at gmx.co.uk
Sat May 30 20:09:34 UTC 2015
On 30/05/15 17:14, Michael Hall wrote:
> In that case I hope that any member of the KC who doesn't adhere to that
> condition will contact any of us on the CC so we can start that dialog.
>
>
> Michael Hall
> mhall119 at ubuntu.com
This for sure.
Regardless of anyone else mailing - at the end of the day, if people
from the Kubuntu Council want to talk to us then they can.
>
> On 05/29/2015 11:48 AM, Benjamin Kerensa wrote:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_quoting_out_of_context
>>
>> On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 8:43 AM, Benjamin Kerensa <bkerensa at ubuntu.com
>> <mailto:bkerensa at ubuntu.com>> wrote:
>>
>> "However, the Kubuntu Council put a condition of the Community
>> Council’s request to Jonathan be removed before they would agree to
>> a meeting.[3, 4, 5]"
>>
>> Incorrect. Those were all individuals who made it clear they were
>> speaking as individuals just like the individuals of the CC made
>> clear their early emails were not representative of the CC as a whole.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 6:59 AM, Charles Profitt
>> <ubuntu at cprofitt.com <mailto:ubuntu at cprofitt.com>> wrote:
>>
>> __
>>
>> The Community Council is currently working on a communication to
>> the Kubuntu Council with regard to their request for additional
>> information. The Community Council will be providing a much more
>> detailed list of incidents, with context, to the Kubuntu
>> Council. The Community Council wishes to respect the privacy of
>> those involved so those details will not be made public by us.
>>
>>
>> The details below are meant to give the larger Ubuntu Community
>> more information on the issue.
>>
>>
>> The Ubuntu Community Council (CC) believes in making the Ubuntu
>> community a wonderful place to participate. We strongly support
>> people treating one another with respect regardless of their
>> differences of opinion.
>>
>>
>> It is important that it is understood that we will not be
>> reversing that decision.
>>
>>
>> Framework:
>>
>> We would like to better explain the framework the Community
>> Council used to make this difficult decision.
>>
>> *
>>
>> Be Respectful
>>
>> o
>>
>> Disagreement is no excuse for poor manners.
>>
>> o
>>
>> Assume good intentions.
>>
>> *
>>
>> Value decisiveness, clarity and consensus
>>
>> o
>>
>> Disagreements, social and technical, are normal, but we
>> do not allow them to persist and fester.
>>
>> *
>>
>> We value discussion, data and decisiveness
>>
>> o
>>
>> Ultimately, if a decision has been taken by the people
>> responsible for it, and is supported by the project
>> governance, it will stand.
>>
>> *
>>
>> Take responsibility for our words and our actions
>>
>> o
>>
>> If someone has been harmed or offended, we listen
>> carefully and respectfully, and work to right the wrong.
>>
>>
>> Communications with Jonathan Riddell:
>>
>> Starting in December of 2013 Jonathan Riddell started a series
>> of communications with the Community Council with regards to IP
>> policy and the community funding program.
>>
>>
>> The Community Council in good faith believing that Jonathan was
>> acting with good intentions took action items to work with
>> Canonical to resolve the issues raised.
>>
>>
>> Over the course of the next two and a half years Jonathan became
>> increasingly confrontational in his interactions with the
>> Community Council over these two items. At times his wording
>> caused offense and were potentially harmful to the community due
>> to his making worst case assumptions. [1] One of the best
>> examples of this behavior is the March 19th Community Council
>> meetings. Jonathan was demanding that the Community Council make
>> a statement that agreed with his position and was unwilling to
>> accept the decision that the Community Council made with regard
>> to waiting until Canonical had finished a review of the IP
>> policy. In that same meeting Jonathan was insensitive to the
>> requests that he be more respectful and that he was making the
>> situation more difficult.[2]
>>
>>
>> To be clear, it is not the individual communications nor
>> questions that were the issue. The questions are valid and
>> important. It was the increasingly hostile tone of the
>> communications coupled with untenable demands and assumptions of
>> the worst possible behavior on the part of Canonical and the
>> Community Council. Jonathan appeared unwilling to take a step
>> back and evaluate how he was communicating with the Community
>> Council nor was he willing to contemplate anything less than the
>> worst possible motivation on the part of Canonical.
>>
>>
>> Based on the pattern of communications the Community Council
>> decided to ask Jonathan to step back from leadership for a
>> period of one year. We were careful to delineate that he would
>> keep his membership and development rights so that he could
>> continue his excellent work on Kubuntu. The purpose was to have
>> Jonathan take a break from leadership so that he could reflect
>> and we could work on rebuilding a collaborative relationship
>> with the KDE Community in Ubuntu.
>>
>>
>> Private vs Public
>>
>> The Ubuntu Community Council values transparency, but we also
>> value personal privacy and public reputations. We also feel that
>> some relationships can best be repaired in private. Once we
>> made the decision with regards to Jonathan we sent an email to
>> him and the Kubuntu Council. Their first response requested an
>> explanation which we were willing to give and wanted to do so in
>> a meeting with them. However, the Kubuntu Council put a
>> condition of the Community Council’s request to Jonathan be
>> removed before they would agree to a meeting.[3, 4, 5]
>>
>>
>> Moving Forward:
>>
>> The examples we are citing here are not a full list, but serve
>> to explain our decision.
>>
>>
>> If at any point in the last two and a half years Jonathan had
>> paused and considered the assertions that he was being
>> aggressive and making things more difficult, this situation
>> could have been avoided. In the end we felt that Jonathan had
>> become unreasonable and was making worst-case assumptions about
>> the motivations of anyone who did not agree with his positions.
>> For that reason we have determined that he cannot represent
>> Ubuntu or parts of its community. We hope that, given a year,
>> Jonathan will return as a more constructive force in the community.
>>
>>
>> Looking back, there has been a constant willingness on
>> Jonathan’s behalf to portray Kubuntu as somehow at odds with
>> Canonical or the rest of Ubuntu. The portrayal of the project as
>> a ‘blue-headed stepchild’, for example, is in and of itself a
>> divisive position. We very much want KDE to feel welcome and
>> included and there are many other teams that are most happy to
>> collaborate to enable the best possible expression of what the
>> code has to offer our shared users. We are open and wish to
>> encourage people passionate about both KDE and Ubuntu to lead
>> that work.
>>
>>
>> Now is time to discuss how the Ubuntu Community moves forward
>> with Kubuntu as part of that community. We hope that the Kubuntu
>> Council will reach out to us in the near future and discuss a
>> path forward as we continue to work together in the spirit of “I
>> am what I am because of who we all are.”
>>
>>
>>
>> -----
>>
>> [1] On the 23rd of February 2015Jonathan made the following
>> statement:
>> “If the funding from October 2012 really isn't included in the
>> current community fund and it simply has been stolen by
>> Canonical this is worse than I had thought.”
>>
>>
>> [2]On March 19th of 2015 Jonathan made the following statements:
>>
>> *
>>
>> “czajkowski: best stop giving in to their stalling and just
>> make a statement”
>>
>> *
>>
>> “mhall119: make a public statement saying it is untrue and
>> irrelevent”
>>
>> *
>>
>> “pleia2: so make a public statement that it is untrue”
>>
>> *
>>
>> “czajkowski: so time to give up on the canonical legal dept,
>> they have been stalling for a year, enough already”
>>
>> *
>>
>> “I'm astonished that the CC doesn't understand the basics of
>> free software or how it can be harmed by claims that our
>> software is not Free”
>>
>> On March 19th of 2015 the following statements were made to
>> Jonathan which he ignored or derided:
>>
>> *
>>
>> “Riddell: you're really making this harder than needs be,
>> you'd swear the CC sit around doing nothing”
>>
>> *
>>
>> “Riddell: In order to make a public statement on a legal
>> matter the CC would have to have a legal expert familiar
>> with international law and the laws of several countries. I
>> do not feel qualified to make any such public statement. I
>> also would like to say that public thrashing about on the
>> topic does not help the situation either.”
>>
>> *
>>
>> “Riddell: I do not see it as an excuse Riddell, but I would
>> like to ask you to be more respectful of the people trying
>> to sort through the issue.”
>>
>>
>> [3] Charles PThu May 21 12:43:41 UTC 2015
>>
>> “I wanted to send you a quick email to let you know the CC has
>> received your email and the one directly from Jonathan. We have
>> a few members who are not on-line currently and have not read
>> the email so I can not speak for them, but do you feel that a
>> meeting with the Kubuntu Council and the Community Council would
>> be a good step forward in this matter?”
>>
>>
>> [4] Myriam SThu May 21 21:30:12 UTC 2015
>>
>> “ I am sure a meeting would be useful to clarify the situation,
>> but personally I am not happy with the threat issued to
>> Jonathan, I think this would need to be resolved before we meet.”
>>
>>
>> [5]Scott KThu May 21 23:39:36 UTC 2015
>>
>> “If the CC wants to have a discussion about a non-catastrophic
>> path forward, I think that would be wonderful, but I for one
>> will not be involved in such discussions what Jonathon is under
>> immediate threat.”
>>
>> --
>> Ubuntu-community-team mailing list
>> Ubuntu-community-team at lists.ubuntu.com
>> <mailto:Ubuntu-community-team at lists.ubuntu.com>
>> Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-community-team
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> /*Benjamin Kerensa*/
>> /http://benjaminkerensa.com/
>> /"I am what I am because of who we all are" - Ubuntu/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> /*Benjamin Kerensa*/
>> /http://benjaminkerensa.com/
>> /"I am what I am because of who we all are" - Ubuntu/
>>
>>
More information about the Ubuntu-community-team
mailing list