DMB: Proposal for a different review process

[Martin Albisetti]

On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 11:26 AM, Mackenzie Morgan <macoafi at gmail.com> wrote:
> That allegation of anti-Canonical bias is why I made [1] and
> highlighted the Canonical employees. If there's an anti-Canonical
> bias, I still don't see it, what with 20% of non-Canonical applicants
> being rejected and only 11% of Canonical applicants being rejected.

Having been part of the meetings where these noisy rejections were
made, talking in the private RMB channel, sometimes voting on these
rejections or weighing in (I tend to not vote on Canonical applicants)
and also being a Canonical employee, I can express without hesitation
that there isn't a single thread of evidence that there is _any_
Canonical bias, for or against.
I do share the feeling that we've had a few instances of Canonical
employees para-shooting into membership without a clear understanding
of what that meant or what it was for beyond "getting an @ubuntu.com
email address".
I don't know about others, but I hold Canonical employees to a higher
standard, high enough to understand what they are doing and why. They
have more than enough of the right people around them on a daily basis
to be able to apply properly.
Again, I don't think there is *any* bias for or against Canonical, I
think the core of the issue is a lack of understanding of how the
community process works and sometimes a lack of sensitivity to the
mis-alignment of the goals of certain teams with the process.
There's also the outstanding issue around what is upstream
contributions or what is a contribution to Ubuntu, Canonical being in
a special place in the middle and there's some friction that needs
working out. Clearing this up in the CC will help a bit, but I feel
the overall solution is cultural rather than procedural.

Knowing that there isn't any bad intentions on either side, I share
the feeling that we get Canonical employees trying to rush through the
process, and when that gets pushed back on, some key people who walk
the Canonical/Ubuntu line make it worse by publicly undermining the
process. That is not helping maintain a healthy relationship between
community and employees.

-- 
Martin