Lack of Connection Between Canonical and the Community

[Craig Maloney]

I think there's a more subtle and different problem in community
engagement that we're missing.

Our team participation is down for several reasons. The first is the
best problem to have: Canonical keeps hiring members of our loco to work
for them. I number several good friends in our loco as members of Canonical and I'm
sure that number will continue to increase. The problem from the loco
perspective though is when it comes time for planning events or other
activities it's difficult to get these members to participate. These
folks are already swamped with contributions as part of their day-to-day
job, and many are participating in sprints or other activities that
conflict with loco activities.

The second reason is most of the folks that aren't working for Canonical
have either moved out of state or have moved on from Ubuntu altogether.
I'm not sure if the ones that have moved away have joined other locos.
The ones that have moved to other distributions other than Ubuntu are
busily using Linux Mint or something else. Regardless there's little
onus for them to continue working on a project for which they see no
direct benefit.

What we're seeing is a shift in the community, both in paid Canonical
representation (who are busily working on things outside of the
distribution) and in volunteer representation (who are shifting to other
distributions).

I don't see how changing how the community is managed is going to solve
either of these issues. Saying "Canonical: please stop hiring the
community" is ludicrous as Canonical would be foolish not to hire within
the community. Nor can we say "please stop moving away from your loco"
as that too is silly.

One suggestion that might help would be for Canonical to allow for more
participation in local events. But then we run the risk of "Canonical is
taking over the community" complaints which further divide our already
fractious community.

The biggest problem is the "us vs. them" mentality that I so often see
whenever Canonical and the community are mentioned. There's a sense of
a hapless and powerless community who dare not speak ill of Canonical or
"bad things will happen". However true the perception is it doesn't bode
well for drawing in new blood and contributors.

I know we shouldn't dwell upon the past as it impedes thinking of how we
can progress in the future. But I submit it's fundamental to figuring
out how to keep people engaged. Until we solve that we'll continue
to churn through a lot of smart and talented folks who either join
Canonical or decide their talents are best used elsewhere.

--
  Craig Maloney  (craig at decafbad.net)        http://decafbad.net
    "Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard, grow big,
     wear glasses if you need 'em." -- The Webb Wilder Credo