Confusing intertwining of Ubuntu Development teams for Membership

[Emmet Hikory]

Members of the Community Counci,
    I was working with the Ubuntu Artwork team today to try to update
the graphics on the Membership page on the wiki (1) to reflect that
the Developer Membership Board having taken over admininstration of
the membership-granting groups that were previoulsly administered by
the MOTU Council.  The artist attempting to capture the structure
found the web of interlocking development teams that grant membership
confusing and difficult to represent clearly.  I then took a look at
the various teams, and discovered it was even more confusing than I
had previously thought.  In the interests of making it easier to
understand how developers are implicily members, and who to contact
for membership, I'd like to request that the interrelationships be
simplified.

    The current structure is as follows:

Ubuntu Contributing Developers (~universe-contributors) is a member of
Ubuntu Members (~ubuntumembers) with DMB as active admin
Ubuntu Developers (~ubuntu-dev) is a member of Ubuntu Members
(~ubuntumembers) with DMB as active admin
MOTU (~motu) is a member of Ubuntu Contributing Developres
(~universe-contributors) with DMB as active admin
MOTU (~motu) is a member of Ubuntu Developers (~ubuntu-dev) also
Kubuntu Developers (~kubuntu-dev) is a member of Ubuntu Developers
(~ubuntu-dev) with Riddell as active admin
Mythbuntu Developers (~mythbuntu-dev) is a member of Ubuntu Developers
(~ubuntu-dev) with superm1 as active admin
Ubuntu Desktop Developers (~ubuntu-desktop) is a member of Ubuntu
Developers (~ubuntu-dev) with pitti & seb128 as active admins
Ubuntu Core Developers (~ubuntu-core-dev) is a member of Ubuntu
Developers (~ubuntu-dev) with DMB as active admin
Ubuntu Core Developers (~ubuntu-core-dev) is a member of MOTU (~motu) also
Ubuntu Core Developers (~ubuntu-core-dev) is a member of Kubuntu
Developers (~kubuntu-dev) also
Ubuntu Core Developers (~ubuntu-core-dev) is a member of Mythbuntu
Develoers (~mythbuntu-dev) also
Ubuntu Core Developers (~ubuntu-core-dev) is a member of Ubuntu
Desktop Develoser (~ubuntu-desktop) also

    There may be more relationships, but these were the ones that were obvious.

    My suggestion of the organisation for documentation purposes would
be as follows:

Ubuntu Contributing Developers (~universe-contributors) is a member of
Ubuntu Members (~ubuntumembers) with DMB as active admin
Ubuntu Developers (~ubuntu-dev) is a member of Ubuntu Contributing
Developers (~universe-contributors) with DMB as active admin
All other development groups are membes of Ubuntu Developers (~ubuntu-dev)
Ubuntu-Core-Dev is a member of some development groups (depending on
TB/DMB policies regarding the status of any other development group)

    Implementation would involve the following four steps, which,
combined, with not change the membership  status of any individual.

1) Make Ubuntu Developers (~ubuntu-dev) a member of Ubuntu
Contributing Developers (~universe-contributors)
2) Remove the membership of Ubuntu Developers (~ubuntu-dev) in Ubuntu
Members (~ubuntumembers)
3) Remove the membership of MOTU (~motu) in Ubuntu Contributing
Developers (~universe-contributors)
4) Modify the documentation to indicate that Ubuntu Contributing
Developers (~universe-contributors) is a member of Ubuntu Members
(~ubuntumembers), and administered by the DMB, removing all other
references to developer groups.

    I'm able to make these changes, but would like explicit
authorisation to do so from the Community Council before proceeding,
as it may lead to some confusion.  I'd also like to potentially change
the launchpad ID for the Contributing Developers, as applicants are
neither expected or required to restrict their work to the universe
component (which is scheduled for removal in any event).

    Note that making these changes will result in slightly incorrect
documentation, as it will not reflect the potential for gaining
membership through those development teams not primarily administered
by the Developer Membership Board, but neither the current (somewhat
in progress) documentation, nor the prior documentation included this
detail, and I suspect that most individuals primarily interested in
Ubuntu Membership would not plan to do so thorugh direct application
to those developer groups (the few exceptions would likely be accepted
as Contributing Developers by the DMB easily if they applied
separately from their other development applications, but I'd hope
that each development community would steer potential applicatnts
correctly as part of the mentoring/training process).

1: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership

-- 
Emmet HIKORY