Ubuntu Governance: Reboot?

Elizabeth K. Joseph lyz at ubuntu.com
Fri Nov 14 23:24:25 UTC 2014


On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 10:59 AM, Jono Bacon <jono at jonobacon.org> wrote:
> I shared my wider thoughts on this topic on
> http://www.jonobacon.org/2014/11/14/ubuntu-governance-reboot/ -
> primarily so it reaches the wider Ubuntu audience who may have views
> on this.
>
> I think this is best discussed here though (as Elizabeth suggested).

Thanks for taking the time to bring this to the list.

> I think it could be worthwhile exploring a new set of core goals for
> our governance, and then transform those principles into a charter.
>
> Thoughts?

You make some excellent points, as a member of the Community Council I
certainly don't enjoy the times when we have to be reactive to
situations and handle bureaucracy. However, I do believe that these
past couple years the CC has gotten in better touch with the community
through our bi-weekly check-ins at our meetings[0] have given teams
their own space for sharing successes and challenges they're facing.
We actually do have the opportunity to help proactively now and I'm
really proud of the work we've been doing. Additionally, while it's
not glamorous, we are helping teams get connected with the tools and
resources to get their work done, which is often what they're up
against as they navigate resources controlled by Canonical, ghost
teams that need new administrators and even simple things like
milestone announcements so team members who only have time to check in
when they get a nudge via email can schedule their work.

As for being inspirational leaders Ubuntu-wide, that's very, very hard
for a community-based team in an ecosystem of a project backed by a
single company, particularly as the community has diversified and some
segments are very clearly controlled by Canonical (Phone, Cloud).
Aside from a few spaces in the community where Canonical has little
presence like Community-based support, Documentation & Translations
teams, I feel we have very little power as community members to make
bold, Mark-like statements. Instead, many of us instead lead by
example, doing real work in the community that's visible (insert
gushing about elfy's amazing work with QA here) and encouraging others
to do the same in our spaces. This is not flashy and exciting, but we
do have our successes and work gets done.

As such, it's these spaces that are community-driven that I think we
may be able to do a better job with. Lately I've seen a fair amount of
"Why am I doing all of this unappreciated work for free?" rather than
"I am passionate about making sure Ubuntu has good $insert_thing_here
so I can make the world a better place." It would be wonderful to see
our community work toward bringing back some of the excitement by
supporting the community-driven teams: Drive contributions to
Documentation, Translations, support outlets. Do more to support and
encourage the amazing work of the Flavors teams.

In the same vein, I'd love to see us reinvent the Ubuntu Global Jam
event so that it's more valuable for the community-driven teams. I
discussed some of the problems with the Jam this past cycle that was
proposed just 6 weeks before the event itself was to take place, which
was not enough time for most volunteer-driven LoCos to find a venue,
prepare for and advertise any valuable event:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/loco-contacts/2014-August/006721.html

All that said, this all takes volunteers. The CC is often busy making
sure teams have the resources they need to do the work they need to
do, and as boring and administrative as this is, we don't have
something to build a community around if these teams still are hitting
barriers. I'm honestly not sure I have time for more than what we do
already and I don't think we're doing unnecessary work. We should
follow-up with the other Councils to see how they feel about the work
they're doing and work to break down unnecessary bureaucratic barriers
where they exist.

Finally, we should all remember that the community we're supporting is
not just a group of Ubuntu cheerleaders (as wonderful as those are!).
The Councils support LoCos doing Jams where they hack on projects,
online support communities that make Ubuntu one of the best-supported
operating systems in history and a completely volunteer-driven efforts
of teams like Docs and Translations. We have to keep in mind that it's
not just about inspiration and excitement, but actually getting the
work done.

[0] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CommunityCouncilAgenda

-- 
Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph || Lyz || pleia2
http://www.princessleia.com



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