New roles in the Ubuntu IRC team

[cprofitt]

I have read a great number of the posts to the list and I want to make
sure that we are not falling in to a pattern that was complained about
in the Ubuntu Community Survey [0]; bickering.

I think everyone acknowledges that there is an issue with workload and
response time for the ircc. I agree with those that oppose added
red-tape inducing bureaucracy; that will not benefit anyone. I also
agree with those that say these 'positions' need not be added layers of
administrivia. 

In the military we had staff officers who were not in command, but
assigned various administrative functions. S3 Officers were operations
and training officers. S6 officers were responsible for signal. Units
also had liaison officers that were responsible for improving
communications between two units. In my case I was attached to a liaison
officer from an Artillery Battalion; we were assigned to the Brigade
Headquarters. It was our responsibility to brief the CO, XO and S3
officer of the Brigade HQ. We had not command authority. We were not in
charge of either unity. We were simply elected to provide communication
between two units. The existence of liaison officers did not prohibit
direct communications between commanders, but were an augmentation to
the communication process.

Jussi chose the word champion and I interpreted this to mean the same
sort of responsibilities as seen above.

>  *Bots & bot direction (Specifications, idea management, perhaps some
> implementation)
>  *Ban list maintenance/eir care (everybody would be still responsible
> for bans, but this person would be ensuring the ban list does not get
> overfull, ensuring new ops get proper eir training, following up on
> any bugs in eir)
>  *Documentation review (reviewing the wiki and other documentation on
> a regular basis)
>  *Channel list review (Reviewing the channel list of our namespace
> channels for stale and/or inappropriate channels)
>  *Factoid Maintenance and review (reviewing factoids and checking for
> old and outdated factoids on a regular basis, updating factoids).
>  *Policy review (reviewing policies for efficiency, usefulness,
> scale-ability, suggestions of changes to policy)

These areas sound like they make sense to me. I think we should all work
on coming to an agreement that some sort of position can exist that
addresses the need for delegated tasks without adding layers of
bureaucracy. Let us work toward that goal.

I also think the desire to add IRC team members to the IRC Council
meeting and renaming the meeting to be more inclusive is a step in the
right direction towards a more open process.

Lastly lets recognize that we are all volunteers and we all have what we
feel are the best intentions when putting forth a plan of action. Lets
ensure we keep that in mind while discussing options and give everyone
the respect and courtesy they deserve as fellow community volunteers.  

[0] http://www.jonobacon.org/2011/10/24/ubuntu-community-survey-results/


Charles Profitt