New roles in the Ubuntu IRC team

[Daniel Holbach]

Hello,

thanks a lot for starting the discussion to improve things.

Am 24.10.2011 20:49, schrieb Jussi Schultink:
> One of the criticisms the IRCC has received recently is the lack of
> interaction with the IRC team in terms of decision making, as well as
> the lack of things getting done. There has been a lack of teamwork to
> get things done, as well as a lack of communication.
> 
> I would like to propose some new roles within the IRC team to help get
> more stuff done that also have the added benefits of communication
> improvement and teamwork.
> 
> I would like to see "champions" for several areas that need taking
> care of within the team. These "champions" would be responsible for
> awareness in the team of their area, as well as ensuring tasks get
> followed up on. (the champion doesn't have to do all the work, just
> ensure that it gets done)
> 
> The champion would also have a lot of input into the overall direction
> of what happens with that area of the IRC team, thus these roles would
> give people an opportunity to have a real impact on the team and its
> direction. There could be more than one champion for each role.

There is nothing wrong with having people who simply care a lot about a
specific topic ensure that things run smoothly. There are countless
examples where this happens in an ad-hoc fashion in our community
(without a formal appointment), simply because these people care -
everybody should feel empowered to act like this: it's the very heart of
our meritocratic spirit. There are also teams with formal roles that are
appointed by governance boards and report to them. Particularly in the
development world there are lots of examples, also the RMBs and LoCo
Council come to my mind.

If it happens "naturally" or via appointment depends on the situation,
team and history of the team. At some stage the responsibilities of
boards just get too much to try to be in charge of everything, so some
delegation has to happen.


On the other hand: if a governance board faces serious challenges to
achieve quorum or implement changes in a reasonable timeframe, then
somebody with the role of a secretary might exert some pressure on the
board, but is not necessarily going to solve personal, organisational or
structural problems.



> I would propose the following areas to have champions, but please feel
> free to suggest other areas - especially if you are willing to take up
> the role.
> 
>  *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)
> 
> Again, I want to stress that the champion doesn't need to do all the
> work, just follow up and ensure it gets done.

Some of the above sound like they can very naturally be a concerted team
effort, rather than a board-driven initiative. I will leave this to the
discretion of the IRC team to decide. If you feel like you need help
identifying issues or want additional input, feel free to reach out
though. :-)


> Also, as part of this, I would like to change the IRCC meeting name to
> IRC Team meeting, and have the champions be a part of the meeting when
> appropriate, to bring things that need changing to the attention of
> the IRC team and the IRC council.

Sounds reasonable.


> The IRC Council's role in all of this would be to approve changes to
> policy and set out a long term plan for growth and maintenance of the
> IRC team, in consultation with the IRC team and the champions.
> 
> I would like to hear all constructive thoughts on this route, be they
> positive or negative.
> 
> I would like this to be a part of our long term plans to be discussed
> in the UDS, following discussion on the mailing list and hopefully
> also in the next IRCC meeting this Sunday.

Yes. I place high expectations into the discussions at UDS, particularly
the Mini Leadership Summit, where we can exchange best practices and
ideas for getting things done.

Thanks again for your proposal.

Have a great day,
 Daniel

-- 
Get involved in Ubuntu development! developer.ubuntu.com/packaging
Stay up to date: follow @ubuntudev on identi.ca/twitter.com/facebook.com