Understanding the definitions and expectations of our membership processes

[Scott Kitterman]

On Thursday, July 21, 2011 04:22:59 PM Chase Douglas wrote:
> On 07/21/2011 12:32 PM, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> > I disagree that a pure upstream membership path is appropriate.  It's
> > been a long held project value that "Because you work for Canonical"
> > doesn't get you special treatment in the project (either better or
> > worse).  Treating Canonical sponsored upstream projects as anything
> > other than the upstream projects they are would change that in a way I
> > don't think we want.
> > 
> > I do agree that there are times when upstream work can be A factor in
> > membership, but unless people are actively involved in Ubuntu, they
> > shouldn't be members.  I know that will result in some Canonical people
> > feeling like they are left out.  If so, they should do like the rest of
> > us do who aren't paid to work on Ubuntu and just contribute.
> 
> I only want to address one small part of this. The reply seems to focus
> quite a bit on Canonical developers and contributions. I do not make any
> distinction, for or against, between a Canonical owned/developed and a
> third-party owned/developed contribution. Because I eluded to personal
> anecdotes earlier in the thread, I want to make clear that none of them
> were based around whether any individual was a Canonical employee or not.
> 
> I have not personally seen any bias for or against Canonical in the
> membership process. I believe membership is being granted on an
> egalitarian basis.

I agree, but since the upstreams that have been mentioned are all Canonical 
sponsored projects almost exclusively developed by Canonical employees the net 
effect of treating such upstream projects specially as "Ubuntu development" 
would be to change this.  I think it would be a serious mistake.

I get the sense that some people are not happy with the way the DMB is working 
(e.g. a recent proposal was sent to the tech board that would have effectively 
emasculated the BMD and turned it into a rubber stamp body).  If people don't 
like what the DMB is doing, then the solution is to try to get on the DMB and 
do a better job.

Scott K

Scott K