Ubuntu Governance Reboot: Five Proposals

Stephen Michael Kellat skellat at sdf.org
Tue Nov 25 01:32:44 UTC 2014


On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 18:27:10 -0500
Svetlana Belkin <belkinsa at ubuntu.com> wrote:

> Just throwing this out there to start discussing it:
> 
> Jone Bacon wrote another blog post about Ubuntu Governance 
> http://www.jonobacon.org/2014/11/24/ubuntu-governance-reboot-five-proposals/
[snip]

I wear multiple hats but they all inform how I respond to Mr. Bacon's five proposals.

1. Create our Governance Mission/Charter

As I write there are 753 persons who are members of http://pad.lv/~ubuntumembers.  That is to say, people who are Ubuntu Members.  Introducing Debian-like processes for drafting something like a mission statement is foreign to how Ubuntu works.  In light of the aftermath of their General Resolution process relative to systemd, I am not inclined to import that to Ubuntu.  I do not want to see that level of bitterness, acrimony, and negativity develop when we try to come up with a mission statement.

If there is a mission statement, one person stands best positioned to articulate it.  That's Mark Shuttleworth.  Community Council, Ubuntu Members, and others can provide counsel and advice.  In the end the structure of this realm results in Mark having to make a judgment call and potentially be the one expounding such a statement.

2. Create an ‘Impact Constitution’

I don't feel comfortable having such a construct as Mr. Bacon proposes.  If anything it can serve as handcuffs that limits us as to where we can make changes and adapt to a vibrant, changing world.  We may not have had the Year of Linux on the Desktop but we've had several years of not just Linux but also BSD on the portable device.  Could any of us realistically have predicted that in 2004 when Ubuntu launched?  With luck we'll be seeing Ubuntu phones and tablets entering the retail market soon.  I may even have a blog post queued up for "Black Friday" later this week bemoaning that we don't have anything in front of retail shoppers this year.

3. Cross-Governance Strategic Meetings

I do joke about Xubuntu's "march through the institutions" when we look at members of overall community governance bodies and how many of them are also members of http://pad.lv/~xubuntu-team which can lead to some informal cooperation.  I do know I was able to contribute to discussion between LoCo Council and Community Council during one session of Ubuntu Online Summit 1411 so that we could discuss a cross-cutting matter.  Community Council also communicates to LoCo Council rather clearly when major issues arise and we've held joint meetings as necessary.  Community Council is the appointing authority for LoCo Council so we are subordinate to it.

The team check-ups really do help accomplish this.  I think we're doing this okay already.  As my mother put it best, nobody knows you need help unless you tell someone.

4. Annual In-Person Governance Summit

We may have a donations fund but it is not an infinite money pit.  Within LoCo Council I did circulate a proposed idea that I request money to visit OggCamp this year to represent the Council so people could ask questions and so I could learn about conditions on the ground.  That got killed pretty quickly by being termed a waste of community resources.  Considering that 4 out of 5 members of LoCo Council are based in the Americas and I am the only member based in North America, we really lack the ability to look at issues on the ground for some of our communities.  I still have an open offer for the District of Columbia community team that if they can stump up train fare on AMTRAK and provide a couch for me to sleep on then I would be able to visit to talk to community members about getting activities more organized there.  The train ride would be the Capitol Limited out of Cleveland to Union Station where I could then catch the DC Metro.

Instead of putting the donations fund to something like this there are projects in community teams that could be backed instead to spread Ubuntu.  While the idea of using the fund for a meeting sounds like it has some merit we can get more bang for the buck in other uses.  Travel costs may be fairly expensive depending upon how disparately spread out the various members of governance bodies may be.

When I'm not on guard for Yet Another Blackout at home due to high winds I can try to do a break-down of the relative geography of where governance persons are located.  That will have to come later.

5. Optimize our community brand around “innovation”

In part this seemed to conflict with the second proposal above.  David Planella is doing a good job with the scopes contest and other efforts to work on highlighting the work of non-Canonical developers.  With Debian now in freeze we have a golden opportunity for people to experiment in the archive.  Outside of actually *promoting* these efforts we do seem to be okay under this heading.  We have too many "well kept secrets" that we are not shouting from the rooftops, metaphorically speaking.

6. Bonus: Network of Ubucons

The last UbuCon effort the Ohio Team succeeded with was at Ohio Linux Fest 2013.  We did not attempt Ohio Linux Fest 2014 as nobody would commit to present.  It soured relations greatly with the Ohio Linux Fest organizers when they were told that, no, having me speak for 5-7 hours was probably a pretty bad idea.  They threatened to marginalize us and go to neighboring community teams to organize something in our stead.  I responded to that by suggesting they try.  They did and failed as none of the neighboring state teams were available to act in our stead.

Organizing an UbuCon during an event is a fairly major undertaking.  In 2013 it was a major effort for me to undertake as sole leader for Ohio.  I ended up after the event appointing three deputies to assist in leading the Ohio community.  I spent quite a bit of time working the phone ensuring speakers were ready and able to speak, making sure arrangements were made, and trying to get everything arranged.  With Northeast Linux Fest seemingly missing, Ohio Linux Fest continuing to be balancing on a knife's edge with their operating budget, there will be a travel component to attending any future Ubuntu in-person event.  We have to keep that in mind.

Stephen Michael Kellat



More information about the Ubuntu-community-team mailing list