New mailing list: ubuntu-devel-discuss

[Matt Zimmerman]

= Executive summary  =

The ubuntu-devel mailing list is being split into two lists, ubuntu-devel and
ubuntu-devel-discuss.  If you are subscribed to ubuntu-devel today, you
probably also want to subscribe to ubuntu-devel-discuss.  See below for
details.

= The full story =

Since its inception, the Ubuntu project has been committed to transparency and
open participation.  Nearly all project activity, from daily chatter to
meetings of the Community Council, takes place in easily accessible public
forums.  This lightweight approach has served us well in the past, making our
community more accessible and enabling efficient collaboration.

As the community grows, it is necessary to make regular adjustments to our
communication facilities in order to keep them working smoothly.  One place
where this has become particularly evident is the ubuntu-devel mailing list
(ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com).  As Ubuntu has become more popular, many of
its users have taken an interest in its development, as evidenced by their
participation in the developer mailing list.  Development of Ubuntu is a
popular subject, with new questions, suggestions and discussions every day, and
ubuntu-devel is the focus of that conversation.

Meanwhile, the development team is still working hard on maintaining and
enhancing Ubuntu.  The development of Ubuntu requires regular and efficient
communication within the development team and with developers of our upstream
projects.

In other words, we recognize two communication needs:

 * The developers need a mailing list to coordinate their efforts
 * The community as a whole needs a place to discuss Ubuntu development

Today, both of these take place on ubuntu-devel, and because the Ubuntu
community is much larger than the development team, developer discussion tends
to be drowned out.  The solution is to create two lists to serve these two
different needs.  The new lists will be organized as follows:

== ubuntu-devel: Developer mailing list ==

 * Discussions among Ubuntu developers about their projects
 * Developer questions about Ubuntu policies and procedures
 * Discussions seeking consensus among Ubuntu developers
 * Point of contact for upstream developers to reach Ubuntu developers
 * Open to all to subscribe, posting moderated for non-developers
 * Existing ubuntu-devel subscriptions will remain unchanged

== ubuntu-devel-discuss: Development discussion ==

 * Sharing of experiences with the current development branch of Ubuntu
 * Technical questions about new features in the development branch
 * Ideas and suggestions about future development of Ubuntu
 * Point of contact for Ubuntu users to reach Ubuntu developers
 * Open to all to subscribe, posting moderated for non-subscribers
 * New mailing list, ubuntu-devel subscribers are encouraged to subscribe
 * http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss

This change will take effect immediately.  Existing subscriptions to
ubuntu-devel will remain unchanged, but as a majority of current ubuntu-devel
threads are now on-topic for ubuntu-devel-discuss, subscribers should consider
also subscribing to that list.

Any questions about the charters of these lists should be addressed to
ubuntu-devel-discuss at lists.ubuntu.com.

-- 
 - mdz