Lack of Connection Between Canonical and the Community

[cprofitt]

On Sun, 2014-12-07 at 22:30 -0800, Jono Bacon wrote:
> On 7 December 2014 at 22:23, Benjamin Kerensa <bkerensa at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> > Five Practical things to help Ubuntu thrive:
> > - Invest in Contributor Recognition
> 
> Can you explain a bit more of what you think here by both investment
> and recognition. There are of course many different contributors in
> the community (different people and methods of contribution), and you
> can't recognize them all the time.
> 
> Also, something I learned is that when you recognize some, others feel
> ignored. How do you recommend we recognize folks in a way that feels
> balanced, and is within a limited set of resources?

I learned a bit about recognition through my daughter's participation in
sports recently.

In basketball the coach picks the starters and doles out playing time.
The coach claims it is based on skill, but it is a subjective opinion of
that coach. Players often feel that the coach simply does not like them
or does not recognize their talent.

In track the people participate in events and get objective results and
there is no perceived favoritism. 

In Ubuntu there appears to be no objective recognition and a great deal
of subjective recognition. Prizes are 'luck' or subjective as well. I
think it would be a huge improvement if we could introduce some
objective recognition, but I would like to see it done in a manner that
does not 'gamify' the process.

Charles