IRC Council resolution: On Recent freenode Events

[Thomas Ward]

In a +5 vote of the below resolution sent to the Community Council by 
the IRC Council (+5 is considered quorate as a minimum of +4 is required 
for quorum), the Community Council hereby fully supports this 
resolution, and fully supports the transition to Libera.chat for the IRC 
home of Ubuntu and the namespaces.

However, the following tasks are hereby designated to the IRCC per this 
resolution support:

1. IRCC must handle the polling of stakeholders.

2. IRCC must handle the logistics of the migration to Libera.chat.  This 
includes handling member cloaking.

3. IRCC must update (and if requested, provide) documentation of the 
migration plan for relevant stakeholders.  IRCC must also keep 
documentation on the relevant stakeholders for the relevant namespaces.

In terms of logistical support, or any contact needed with Canonical IS, 
Monica Ayhens-Madon <monica.ayhens.madon at canonical.com> has offered to 
be your PoC for that.  The CC is also here to help if you need anything 
in addition to the above while exercising the logistics of the migration.


Thomas Ward
Ubuntu Community Council Member
(on behalf of the entire Community Council)

On 5/19/21 5:57 PM, rww wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> In response to today's events on freenode, the Ubuntu IRC Council has
> voted on (for: 4, against: 0, absent: 1) the following resolution. For
> public discussion of this issue, please feel free to use the public
> Ubuntu IRC listserv (ubuntu-irc at lists.ubuntu.com). If you have private
> concerns, please feel free to contact the Ubuntu IRC Council at
> irc-council at lists.ubuntu.com.
>
> The following links provide some information on the current state of
> freenode, are provided by me in my individual capacity, and have not
> been officially endorsed by the IRC Council:
>
> * https://gist.github.com/joepie91/df80d8d36cd9d1bde46ba018af497409
> * https://gist.github.com/aaronmdjones/1a9a93ded5b7d162c3f58bdd66b8f491
> * https://gist.github.com/jesopo/45a3e9cdbe517dc55e6058eb43b00ed9
>
> Sincerely,
> rww
>
> === BEGIN RESOLUTION TEXT ===
>
> (1) Ubuntu has historically used the Internet Relay Chat network
> freenode for real-time support and development communications. freenode
> has until now been run by a group of volunteers ("freenode staff")
> selected from members of the freenode community. The Ubuntu IRC Team's
> interactions with freenode staff have been generally positive, and the
> system has worked well for us for many years.
>
> (2) In May 2021, Imperial Family Companies, who employs or employed the
> former freenode Head of Staff, Christel Dahlskjaer, removed operational
> control of freenode from its staffers. The legal basis for this action
> is unclear. However, we believe that the moral and pragmatic
> consequences of this action are negative.
>
> (3) The Ubuntu IRC Council thanks freenode staff for their work. We
> recognize that though the Ubuntu IRC Team and freenode staff did not
> always agree on everything, the volunteer-based system formerly in place
> on freenode has worked extremely well and has sustained freenode since
> before the Ubuntu project began. We thank freenode for providing
> real-time communications to us at no cost, and wish freenode staff
> success in their future endeavours.
>
> (4) We do not have faith that the new ownership of freenode has the
> community's best interest at heart. We believe that it is in the best
> interest of the Ubuntu project and other projects using freenode to
> switch to a communication platform that is run by a not-for-profit
> entity controlled by volunteers.
>
> (5) While the IRC Council has broad delegated authority to decide
> matters related to Ubuntu's real-time communication infrastructure, we
> do not believe it is appropriate for us to unilaterally decide to move
> Ubuntu's real-time communication infrastructure to a new platform. We
> therefore call on the Ubuntu Community Council to consider moving to a
> new IRC network or other platform, with broad input from relevant
> stakeholders (including the IRC Team, Ubuntu developers, flavour
> developers, people providing support in Ubuntu channels, etc.).
>
> (6) freenode staff have moved to Libera.Chat <https://libera.chat/>,
> which appears to meet our requirements for volunteer-operated
> communication. We strongly recommend that the Community Council consider
> switching to this network.
>
> == END RESOLUTION TEXT ==
>
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