Community Council Statement: Jonathan Riddell
Benjamin Kerensa
bkerensa at ubuntu.com
Fri May 29 15:48:39 UTC 2015
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_quoting_out_of_context
On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 8:43 AM, Benjamin Kerensa <bkerensa at ubuntu.com>
wrote:
> "However, the Kubuntu Council put a condition of the Community Council’s
> request to Jonathan be removed before they would agree to a meeting.[3, 4,
> 5]"
>
> Incorrect. Those were all individuals who made it clear they were speaking
> as individuals just like the individuals of the CC made clear their early
> emails were not representative of the CC as a whole.
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 6:59 AM, Charles Profitt <ubuntu at cprofitt.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> The Community Council is currently working on a communication to the
>> Kubuntu Council with regard to their request for additional information.
>> The Community Council will be providing a much more detailed list of
>> incidents, with context, to the Kubuntu Council. The Community Council
>> wishes to respect the privacy of those involved so those details will not
>> be made public by us.
>>
>> The details below are meant to give the larger Ubuntu Community more
>> information on the issue.
>>
>> The Ubuntu Community Council (CC) believes in making the Ubuntu
>> community a wonderful place to participate. We strongly support people
>> treating one another with respect regardless of their differences of
>> opinion.
>>
>> It is important that it is understood that we will not be reversing that
>> decision.
>>
>> Framework:
>>
>> We would like to better explain the framework the Community Council used
>> to make this difficult decision.
>>
>> -
>>
>> Be Respectful
>> -
>>
>> Disagreement is no excuse for poor manners.
>> -
>>
>> Assume good intentions.
>> -
>>
>> Value decisiveness, clarity and consensus
>> -
>>
>> Disagreements, social and technical, are normal, but we do not
>> allow them to persist and fester.
>> -
>>
>> We value discussion, data and decisiveness
>> -
>>
>> Ultimately, if a decision has been taken by the people responsible
>> for it, and is supported by the project governance, it will stand.
>> -
>>
>> Take responsibility for our words and our actions
>> -
>>
>> If someone has been harmed or offended, we listen carefully and
>> respectfully, and work to right the wrong.
>>
>>
>> Communications with Jonathan Riddell:
>>
>> Starting in December of 2013 Jonathan Riddell started a series of
>> communications with the Community Council with regards to IP policy and the
>> community funding program.
>>
>> The Community Council in good faith believing that Jonathan was acting
>> with good intentions took action items to work with Canonical to resolve
>> the issues raised.
>>
>> Over the course of the next two and a half years Jonathan became
>> increasingly confrontational in his interactions with the Community Council
>> over these two items. At times his wording caused offense and were
>> potentially harmful to the community due to his making worst case
>> assumptions. [1] One of the best examples of this behavior is the March
>> 19th Community Council meetings. Jonathan was demanding that the Community
>> Council make a statement that agreed with his position and was unwilling to
>> accept the decision that the Community Council made with regard to waiting
>> until Canonical had finished a review of the IP policy. In that same
>> meeting Jonathan was insensitive to the requests that he be more respectful
>> and that he was making the situation more difficult.[2]
>>
>> To be clear, it is not the individual communications nor questions that
>> were the issue. The questions are valid and important. It was the
>> increasingly hostile tone of the communications coupled with untenable
>> demands and assumptions of the worst possible behavior on the part of
>> Canonical and the Community Council. Jonathan appeared unwilling to take a
>> step back and evaluate how he was communicating with the Community Council
>> nor was he willing to contemplate anything less than the worst possible
>> motivation on the part of Canonical.
>>
>> Based on the pattern of communications the Community Council decided to
>> ask Jonathan to step back from leadership for a period of one year. We were
>> careful to delineate that he would keep his membership and development
>> rights so that he could continue his excellent work on Kubuntu. The purpose
>> was to have Jonathan take a break from leadership so that he could reflect
>> and we could work on rebuilding a collaborative relationship with the KDE
>> Community in Ubuntu.
>>
>> Private vs Public
>>
>> The Ubuntu Community Council values transparency, but we also value
>> personal privacy and public reputations. We also feel that some
>> relationships can best be repaired in private. Once we made the decision
>> with regards to Jonathan we sent an email to him and the Kubuntu Council.
>> Their first response requested an explanation which we were willing to give
>> and wanted to do so in a meeting with them. However, the Kubuntu Council
>> put a condition of the Community Council’s request to Jonathan be removed
>> before they would agree to a meeting.[3, 4, 5]
>>
>> Moving Forward:
>>
>> The examples we are citing here are not a full list, but serve to explain
>> our decision.
>>
>> If at any point in the last two and a half years Jonathan had paused and
>> considered the assertions that he was being aggressive and making things
>> more difficult, this situation could have been avoided. In the end we felt
>> that Jonathan had become unreasonable and was making worst-case assumptions
>> about the motivations of anyone who did not agree with his positions. For
>> that reason we have determined that he cannot represent Ubuntu or parts of
>> its community. We hope that, given a year, Jonathan will return as a more
>> constructive force in the community.
>>
>> Looking back, there has been a constant willingness on Jonathan’s behalf
>> to portray Kubuntu as somehow at odds with Canonical or the rest of Ubuntu.
>> The portrayal of the project as a ‘blue-headed stepchild’, for example, is
>> in and of itself a divisive position. We very much want KDE to feel welcome
>> and included and there are many other teams that are most happy to
>> collaborate to enable the best possible expression of what the code has to
>> offer our shared users. We are open and wish to encourage people passionate
>> about both KDE and Ubuntu to lead that work.
>>
>> Now is time to discuss how the Ubuntu Community moves forward with
>> Kubuntu as part of that community. We hope that the Kubuntu Council will
>> reach out to us in the near future and discuss a path forward as we
>> continue to work together in the spirit of “I am what I am because of who
>> we all are.”
>>
>>
>> -----
>>
>> [1] On the 23rd of February 2015 Jonathan made the following statement:
>> “If the funding from October 2012 really isn't included in the current
>> community fund and it simply has been stolen by Canonical this is worse
>> than I had thought.”
>>
>> [2]On March 19th of 2015 Jonathan made the following statements:
>>
>> -
>>
>> “czajkowski: best stop giving in to their stalling and just make a
>> statement”
>> -
>>
>> “mhall119: make a public statement saying it is untrue and irrelevent”
>> -
>>
>> “pleia2: so make a public statement that it is untrue”
>> -
>>
>> “czajkowski: so time to give up on the canonical legal dept, they
>> have been stalling for a year, enough already”
>> -
>>
>> “I'm astonished that the CC doesn't understand the basics of free
>> software or how it can be harmed by claims that our software is not Free”
>>
>> On March 19th of 2015 the following statements were made to Jonathan
>> which he ignored or derided:
>>
>> -
>>
>> “Riddell: you're really making this harder than needs be, you'd swear
>> the CC sit around doing nothing”
>> -
>>
>> “Riddell: In order to make a public statement on a legal matter the
>> CC would have to have a legal expert familiar with international law and
>> the laws of several countries. I do not feel qualified to make any such
>> public statement. I also would like to say that public thrashing about on
>> the topic does not help the situation either.”
>> -
>>
>> “Riddell: I do not see it as an excuse Riddell, but I would like to
>> ask you to be more respectful of the people trying to sort through the
>> issue.”
>>
>>
>> [3] Charles P Thu May 21 12:43:41 UTC 2015
>>
>> “I wanted to send you a quick email to let you know the CC has received
>> your email and the one directly from Jonathan. We have a few members who
>> are not on-line currently and have not read the email so I can not speak
>> for them, but do you feel that a meeting with the Kubuntu Council and the
>> Community Council would be a good step forward in this matter?”
>>
>> [4] Myriam S Thu May 21 21:30:12 UTC 2015
>>
>> “ I am sure a meeting would be useful to clarify the situation, but
>> personally I am not happy with the threat issued to Jonathan, I think this
>> would need to be resolved before we meet.”
>>
>> [5] Scott K Thu May 21 23:39:36 UTC 2015
>> “If the CC wants to have a discussion about a non-catastrophic path
>> forward, I think that would be wonderful, but I for one will not be
>> involved in such discussions what Jonathon is under immediate threat.”
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> *Benjamin Kerensa*
> *http://benjaminkerensa.com <http://benjaminkerensa.com>*
> *"I am what I am because of who we all are" - Ubuntu*
>
--
*Benjamin Kerensa*
*http://benjaminkerensa.com <http://benjaminkerensa.com>*
*"I am what I am because of who we all are" - Ubuntu*
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