Life is so good, it gets better every day

OpenSolaris Membership

So Stephen was interested in hearing some perspectives around the OpenSolaris Governance model that’s in the process of being established. The current OpenSolaris Governance draft presents a couple of interesting situations around the formation of an initial membership (Note: my interpretation of the constitution could be false), based on the ideals set out in the constitution.

In section 4.2. Admission of Members it states –

The initial set of Members for the OpenSolaris Community shall be those natural persons designated by the existing OpenSolaris projects as Core Contributors to their projects. The initial set is intended to be a representative sample of the Community’s existing core contributors and need not include every person that might fit that level of involvement.

Stephen has attempted to solicit an initial list from the various community leaders – we have that result here, setting out Core Contributors and Contributors according to each community. Having scanned over it, overall it seems to be pretty representative of my observations of activity over the last year or so, although there’s some somewhat surprising omissions and lack of thought/feedback from a few communities.

Let’s remind ourselves of those roles from section 3.3. Roles –

Contributor

A participant who has been acknowledged by one or more Community Groups as having substantively contributed toward accomplishing the tasks of that Community Group, or by the OGB for at-large contributions, shall be termed an OpenSolaris Contributor. Such designation is permanent and persists regardless of the person’s current level of activity or status within the Community. A Contributor may request that their status not be published or published only in the form of a pseudonym that is unique within the Community.

Core Contributor

A Contributor who is an active and sustained contributor to any Community Group and accepts designation as such by said Group shall be termed a Core Contributor for said Group and granted the status of Member for the OpenSolaris Community as a whole.

Let’s return back to section 4.2. Admission of Members, and an interesting line –

The initial set (Ed: of Members) shall be admitted upon the affirmative vote of the OGB at the initial meeting of the OGB.

So as time draws closer to an election according to the proposed timeline, how does this initial list get approved and submitted – by the existing OGB? or by the newly elected OGB at the initial meeting? If the latter, who decides the initial list of people that can vote?

Moreover, in section 5.10. Voting and 6.2. Composition –

Each Member shall be entitled to one vote on each matter submitted to a vote at a meeting of the members.

The OGB shall consist of a minimum of three (3) and a maximum of seven (7) natural persons (“OGB members”) elected by the Members.

which suggests that only a very small handful of non-Sun people (having scanned the list) can actually vote in the upcoming elections which, if true, I would be heavily disappointed to the extent that my personal decisions made on behalf of the Desktop community would have been very different as a result.

How do we sustain these membership levels? Are they a good reflection of the OpenSolaris community when a lot of the actual development is happening in projects rather than the various sub-communities? Will it always be subjective and entirely up to the discretion of Core Contributors? Does that give us the opportunity of maximum growth within the OpenSolaris community as a whole?

In the GNOME, we have a different governance model – it’s a lot more informal, though keeps with similar principles of a meritocracy (at least we’d like to think it does). Our membership has evolved over several years and, through many heated discussions, embraces being open and welcoming. Nat wrote an excellent mail, which describes our ideals, much like the code of conduct is trying to achieve. Membership is for life, though needs to renewed every 2 years. We figure that if someone cares enough about renewing their membership, they still care enough about GNOME, and quite frankly for the majority, we need those people around. Consequently, the people who write the code or contribute the most generally tend to create the direction of the project. Although at times we really struggle with making decisions, we seem to get by for the most part, and the GNOME goes from strength to strength.

So while I don’t think the current OpenSolaris constitution is bad in any way, shape or form, it presents some interesting challenges particularly in being able to adapt to changes in the environment, while still encouraging a growing community. Finding that fine line between those that want an extensible and dynamic community and those that want to constantly tow the party line and quote the constitution may be tricky. I’m personally looking forward to that evolution in the projet and excited about getting involved.

Vote List for OpenSolaris Elections

While discussion continues around the OpenSolaris Constitution especially with regard to the upcoming elections, if you are an active participant you might want to look at the current voting list. Those on the list are the ones who are eligible to participate in the elections (though it won’t stop you from making a candidacy for a position on the OGB). If you aren’t on that list for any reason, it might be a good idea to contact your OpenSolaris community rep and mention why you should be included. As a rep myself for the Desktop community, it was a pretty hard choice to pick out people, especially so trying to find the right balance between community contribution and code with the rather hazy distinction at times between the desktop community and the JDS project.

Broadband, Part 119

Dear Mr Foster

As you might be aware, Xtra’s Broadband plans now offer download speeds as fast as your phone line allows. For the majority of our customers, the change has been a good thing and they’re getting better speeds. But unfortunately, there are also some customers – yourself included – whose connection speeds have slowed down. Clearly, this is a frustrating situation. It’s why we wanted to get in touch as soon as possible and why we’d like to give you a one-off credit to cover the next three months of your broadband plan charges. We also wanted to explain the likely cause of the slower speeds and let you know what options you have. Having tested your phone line, we estimate your broadband connetion is now running at a maximum download speed of 1248 kbps. Unfortunately, we can’t avoid this reduction in speed: it’s the result of the way broadband technology works. Introducing download speeds as fast as your line allows has caused more interference on phone lines and this, in turn, can result in slower connection speeds for some customers, particularly for people who live a long way from their phone exchange….

And then the fuckers suggest the following wonderful 3 options

• Stay on your current plan
• Change to Xtra Dial-up
• Cancel the service

Sigh. This is another moment in a long string of cockups that I come to expect of Telecom. I wonder where my exchange is – I can’t be that far away, I’m pretty much in the CBD. Next time I move, I’ll make sure to find a place that cable modem covers.

OSCON Opens its CFP

The call for papers has opened for OSCON, taking place July 23-27th in Portland, Oregon. Last year was a pretty excellent conference, and I really enjoyed it. It was incredibly special because not only did it give me the opportunity of seeing the cool kids of open source again, it was also the first time I met a whole bunch of OpenSolaris folks. I had an awesome time. However, for both communities I’m involved in, GNOME and OpenSolaris, there’s an incredible opportunity – OSCON reaches many, many people and Paul’s observations from last year show there’s a lot of potential to bring our software to new sets of people.

It will be interesting to see how the conference pans out this year, and what new directions it takes (I know Nat has a few ideas). Despite the somewhat miserable flop from a Sun point of view in the exhibition hall last year, I’m hoping Sun will be a part of the OSCON 2007 story, if only so that we can have another excellent BOF about what we are and aren’t doing well in our open source involvement. Every indication is that it isn’t so bad.

MPK, February 6th-10th

I’m heading to Sun’s HQ again between Feb 6th-10th to take part in an Sun Developer Network webcast thing on open source – should be fun! Either side of it, I hope to be hanging out with some more Sun Solaris/OpenSolaris folks, and attending a day of the XOrg developer conference!

Linux.con.fau

It’s the final day of linux.conf.au, and thus far it’s been an absolute blast. Seven team, thank you for your hard work, you’ve taken the conference in new directions and set new high standards and should be amazingly proud of what you’ve pulled off. I’ve enjoyed every minute, though have felt absolutely knackered for the entire week. It’s been fun catching up with a whole host of people, both GNOME and non-GNOME people.

Highlights have been the great coffee across the campus, the cool conference tshirts you can actually wear in public (thanks Andy!), the awesome quality of the talks (check the recordings here), and continual ‘everyone is equal’ grassroots feel during the various networking sessions I attended.

Back to reality next week, at least for a couple of weeks.

Hutch

“Whoa! Your stock just went up in my book, my friend.” – sun.com has scary similarities.

Long Time No Blog, But Flyin’ Home

I’m still alive and lots to catch up on, but have just almost finished a relaxing month away in the Northern hemisphere. Anyone who is expecting a mail or anything out of me will have to wait for another little while, but feeling pretty good and refreshed and signs of the Glandular Fever seem to have disappeared.

We had a ball away, with trips around Paris and London, and my first Christmas at home for 3 years. It was all pretty sweet, but looking forward to getting back to NZ and tackle the busy January and February planned with Linux.conf.au, possible trips to the US, trip from Domhnall, and maybe the OpenSolaris conference. Should be fun.

Just over a year ago, I finally decided to stop pissing my airpoints down the stream and signed up with Singapore Airlines and Star Alliance. I don’t know what I was thinking earlier, but having lounge access has made the flying experience so much more relaxing and enjoyable. Heathrow continues to be absolute clusterfuck (seriously, someone needs to hire some clever people who have mastered in queue theory), but the lounges are those quiet oases I’ve always dreamed about (and free WiFi too!). See you on the other side!

Globe Hopping

I’m globe hopping at the moment, so I’m mostly ignoring email and my cell phone isn’t roaming over here. Jayne has a good blog of what we’ve been up to. Meanwhile, good to see GNOME 2.16 hitting the streets on Solaris. So far the reaction seems good, and hopefully the team will rock and nail the niggling bugs that we have. Meanwhile, the guys have been rocking on getting the GNOME 2.17 builds into shape. Yay!

Out To Get You

After 1,000’s of miles of flying across for your brother’s wedding, my body decides to get sick with some allergy to penicillin I was taking for a sore throat. Marvelous. Looking like shit a day before the wedding, and desperately hoping things calm down before a drive tomorrow. Doc says it might be Glandular fever, and this article seems spot on. The internet is an ugly place on these occasions though, and only helps to scare the willies out of you.