MOTU and DMB

[Mark Shuttleworth]

Hi folks

Given the concerns expressed in a thread about the extension of terms
for some MC folks, I thought it best to articulate the current plan as I
understand it w.r.t. MOTU and the MOTU Council, and the Developer
Membership Boards.

In Motu and the MC we have one of Ubuntu's best community successes.
This is a group that was formed specifically to ensure that Ubuntu had
the widest possible relevance to a broad cross-section of the community,
and it is lead and managed by folks who care about that mandate.

The key role of the MC has been to identify and assess developer
capability. That need continues, and there has never been any question
about the ongoing value of the skills in the MC to the new process.

The old main/universe division was simplistic. It didn't have any
mechanisms to engage with people who have specialist interests, like
upstreams and Debian developers and people who prefer to work on
subsystems like XFCE. The generalist role of "universe maintainer"
requires a very unique combination of interests.

The new model retains the room for generalists, but increases the
responsibility of the generalists by enabling them to affect the whole
distro, rather than just universe. The skills of the MC in assessing
developer capabilities will be valuable for that role.

The new model also creates the ability to assess and approve permissions
for people with more limited interests. And MC folks will be well
positioned to contribute there too (since in many cases they came to the
MC from specialist interests like Kubuntu).

All in all, there is absolutely no reason for folks on the MC to feel
that their work and strengths are not being valued. I fully expect there
to be a greater pipeline of talent knocking on our door now that we have
a more sophisticated and richer permission framework that enables us to
fast-track people to work on the things they are personally inspired and
motivated by.

I hope this helps reassure folk on the MC.

Mark
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