New Ubuntu Desktop Developers?

[Cody A.W. Somerville]

Hi Micah,

(Moving discussion to devel-permissions and developer-membership-board;
ubuntu-desktop BCCed - please feel free to re-add to CC if you feel
appropriate)

On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 10:22 PM, Micah Gersten <micahg at ubuntu.com> wrote:

> Hi, I noticed there were some new Ubuntu Desktop developers, but I
> didn't notice see any advocation on the ubuntu-desktop ML or any
> announcement of these new developers on devel-permissions.  Is the
> policy[1] listed on the wiki out of date?
>
<snip>

> [1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Developers
>

The delegation of package set permission management to approved development
teams is a relatively new process within Ubuntu that is arguably still
settling into place. As a change that has significant impact on our
development community, its important for us to be diligent in monitoring and
gauging its success and being watchful for any road bumps. As such, I
appreciate you bringing up your concern and have added a review of the
responsibilities and requirements of DMB delegates to the agenda for
discussion at the next developer membership board meeting as I feel this is
something that is due to checked on.

However, as to your question about the policy listed on the wiki for the
Ubuntu Desktop Developers team I can only assume that you're referring to
Michael Terry and Rodrigo Moya who were both added on the 2nd of November. I
agree that it does not appear the full process as described on the DMB Team
Delegation wikipage was followed for these two individuals although it is
not clear to me if the individuals fail to qualify under the delegation
policy to be granted upload permissions by the delegate team's
administrators or if only a procedural error has been made.

Here are some observations:

 1. Teams must maintain a wiki page describing their policy for granting
upload access and any special requirements for team membership. However,
there is no requirement for the team's administrators to follow the policy
they've written.
 2. Announcement of applicants to an appropriate publicly-readable mailing
list to provide an opportunity for feedback is recommended but not required.
 3. "Successful applications, or administrator additions, must be announced
to devel-permissions at lists.ubuntu.com and to an appropriate
publicly-readable mailing list for the team." This *is* a requirement which
appears to have been missed. You'll also note that this suggests that
individuals may be added to the team at the discretion of the administrators
and that an application process is only a recommendation and not a
requirement.
 4. However, "Applicants must meet the general requirements for specialist
Ubuntu developers<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopers#Per-package%2520Uploaders>"
links to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopers#Per-package%20Uploaderswhich
lists a number of requirements which would be difficult to verify
without an application process that requires the solicitation of advocation.
Are individuals who are added at the discretion of the team's administrators
required to meet the general requirements for specialist Ubuntu developers
or are they exempt since they're technically  not applicants? As for
individuals who *are* applicants, since we have no requirements on the
process or policy delegates employ for granting upload access, how can we be
sure that the delegates are only accepting applicants who meet the
aforementioned standard as required?
 5. There is no process or guidelines for how the DMB should handle isolated
(like in this case) or habitual violation of the delegation policy either
accidentally (which I believe is this case here) or intentionally. Clearly
forgetting to announce a new member is different from intentionally abusing
the delegation of authority but its also clear that a purely procedural
requirement like announcing new members is important for us to ensure is
executed as required (to, for example, help prevent fragmentation of the
developer community - a realistic possibility described in the original
specification for improved archive permissions).

Cheers,

-- 
Cody A.W. Somerville
Release Engineer
Foundations Team
Custom Engineering Solutions Group
Canonical OEM Services
Phone: +1 781 850 2087
Cell: +1 613 401 5141
Fax: +1 613 687 7368
Email: cody.somerville at canonical.com
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