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Defining the role of the Community Council

 

 

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qole.tablet at gmail

Mar 23, 2009, 11:19 AM

Post #1 of 7 (763 views)
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Defining the role of the Community Council

So, here I am, elected to the maemo.org Community Council. Now what do I do?

I posed the following question to the other Community Council members, but I
have been asked to post this publicly so that the entire community can
discuss this.

I wrote:

I think a high priority task in the next six months would be to define a
> clear set of responsibilities of council members, both for candidates to
> know what they're applying for and for voters to know what they're voting
> for. If there are any benefits, a list of those would be good too.
>
> At the moment I get the impression that nobody's exactly sure what we are
> supposed to do, not even the Council members. Note I said "supposed to"
> because what the members of the inaugural Council actually did was good and
> everything, but there's often no clear line between "very involved community
> member" and "community council member". Most of the things that the Council
> members did were the things that committed members do in a community.
>
> Perhaps that's how we want it to be? Membership on the council is a reward
> for past service, a recognition of a person's standing in the community?
>
> I just think a vague description of the Council and its duties doesn't help
> anyone.
>


GeneralAntilles made some good points in the private discussion; I'll let
him repost them here.

Please chip in with your thoughts. When you elected me and the other
Community Council members, what are some of the things that you thought you
were electing us to do?

I hope we can see the wiki page expanded as we hash this out.

http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council#Purpose_.28Mission.29 and following

--
Qole: fanboy, wacko and maemo.org junta member


quim.gil at nokia

Mar 24, 2009, 12:52 AM

Post #2 of 7 (740 views)
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Re: Defining the role of the Community Council [In reply to]

Hi,

ext Qole wrote:
> So, here I am, elected to the maemo.org <http://maemo.org> Community
> Council. Now what do I do?

Actually I think this might be related to the low participation in the
election. In the way it was done, your vote basically goes for the ones
you know and appreciated better. If you don't know these guys much, you
are not sure about who should go first, and then you leave it for
tomorrow and...

If instead each candidate would present candidacy with a prioritized
list of tasks s/he is willing to push forward if elected, things are
quite different. You vote more that backlog, and the fact that you think
that person can really push it forward.

Once the new council is formed, it's much easier to get a team backlog
merging the ones from each candidate. In case of doubt, the electorate
has even given an orientation of the candidates/backlogs preferred with
their preferential votes.

But it's never too late. Each council member could come up with their
backlog of 5-10 tasks and then try to merge all the listed tasks.

The backlog left by the current council can be taken into account by the
following cancel and so on. It can also nurture the maemo.org
development backlog... You know, with backlogs the possibilities are
endless. ;)

--
Quim Gil
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kees.jongenburger at gmail

Mar 24, 2009, 9:12 AM

Post #3 of 7 (719 views)
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Re: Defining the role of the Community Council [In reply to]

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 8:52 AM, Quim Gil <quim.gil [at] nokia> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> ext Qole wrote:
>> So, here I am, elected to the maemo.org <http://maemo.org> Community
>> Council. Now what do I do?
>
> Actually I think this might be related to the low participation in the
> election. In the way it was done, your vote basically goes for the ones
> you know and appreciated better. If you don't know these guys much, you
> are not sure about who should go first, and then you leave it for
> tomorrow and...
>
> If instead each candidate would present candidacy with a prioritized
> list of tasks s/he is willing to push forward if elected, things are
> quite different. You vote more that backlog, and the fact that you think
> that person can really push it forward.

That is an excellent idea. I for one don't know if people votes me
because I am just a very nice guy or that they
read and like my revolutionary ideas. Either way lets take this into
account the next time.

Form my perspective growth is a key factor(and the Summit is very
important for that).


>
> Once the new council is formed, it's much easier to get a team backlog
> merging the ones from each candidate. In case of doubt, the electorate
> has even given an orientation of the candidates/backlogs preferred with
> their preferential votes.
Indeed this would help

>
> But it's never too late. Each council member could come up with their
> backlog of 5-10 tasks and then try to merge all the listed tasks.

Good idea

Greetings
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maemo-community [at] maemo
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andrew at bleb

Mar 27, 2009, 10:50 AM

Post #4 of 7 (713 views)
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Re: Defining the role of the Community Council [In reply to]

On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 18:19, Qole <qole.tablet [at] gmail> wrote:
>
> At the moment I get the impression that nobody's exactly sure what we are
> supposed to do, not even the Council members

IMNSHO, I had intended the primary role of the council to be
representing the views and opinions of the Maemo Community to Nokia,
and vice versa.

I define the "Maemo Community" as anyone sufficiently enfranchised in
the tablets to be discussing things on ITT, ranking downloads on
maemo.org, developers, power users, bloggers etc.

On a practical level, this includes:

* Highlighting things like "a, b and c would be possible if
Nokia did x & y - and here's why that's useful to Nokia and
the community".

* Recruiting for the debmaster position, and any other maemo.org
roles (I hope!)

* Representing the community in the monthly maemo.org sprint
meetings.

* Pushing to expand the community through organic growth.

* Ensure that one part of the community is aware of what's going
on elsewhere.

* Being able to speak authoritatively on behalf of the community
when Nokia need a question answering (such as "would it be good
if we did x & y" or "do you think Nokia should sponsor
another summit")

> Most of the things that the Council members did were the things that
> committed members do in a community.
>
> Perhaps that's how we want it to be? Membership on the council is a reward
> for past service, a recognition of a person's standing in the community?

It's hardly a glamorous role. As you say, many committed members of a
community do these things anyway (a good example would be sjgadsby
doing the bug jars: there's no requirement he be on the council to do
them, and - despite having not been elected - he will continue to do
them into the future).

"Reward" is *definitely* the wrong term. It's basically a commitment
to carry on doing what you were doing before in your hobby, but now
you've told people you'll be more active, more helpful, and more
involved than before!

Obviously, one would hope that being a council member would favourably
tip oneself in the direction of a successful device programme
application (if there is another one), or sponsorship to the summit.
These are rewards. As is the very nice dinner Ari took us to on the
Wednesday of OSiM :-)

> Please chip in with your thoughts. When you elected me and the other
> Community Council members, what are some of the things that you thought you
> were electing us to do?

I'll get on to Quim's suggestion in a moment, but this is a
representative council. The *main* decision the electorate should have
been making is "do I think this person will represent my views when
speaking with the louder voice the council bestows".

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 07:52, Quim Gil <quim.gil [at] nokia> wrote:
>
> If instead each candidate would present candidacy with a prioritized
> list of tasks s/he is willing to push forward if elected, things are
> quite different. You vote more that backlog, and the fact that you think
> that person can really push it forward.

This could be useful for some candidates, especially one who isn't
already a big "rockstar". However, some caveats:

* I see the best work the council doing is ongoing (and possibly
reactive). Project-oriented tasks don't necessarily fit well into
that mold.

* This is still a volunteer position. The one defined role
(chair) having an ongoing and specific task is enough; let's leave
6 month specific commitments to people getting paid or people
scratching itches. By standing for the council, you're already
making a commitment to being more involved in the wiki,
planet/news, bugs and talk than before. Making promises on
specifics (and tasks in the backlog /should/ be specfic)
is just likely to lead to disappointment, I think.

Cheers,

Andrew

--
Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew [at] bleb | http://www.bleb.org/
Maemo Community Council chair
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maemo-community mailing list
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jamie at linuxuk

Mar 27, 2009, 12:36 PM

Post #5 of 7 (701 views)
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Re: Defining the role of the Community Council [In reply to]

On 27 Mar 2009, at 17:50, Andrew Flegg wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 18:19, Qole <qole.tablet [at] gmail> wrote:
>>
>> At the moment I get the impression that nobody's exactly sure what
>> we are
>> supposed to do, not even the Council members
>
> IMNSHO, I had intended the primary role of the council to be
> representing the views and opinions of the Maemo Community to Nokia,
> and vice versa.

<snip>

Excellent response Andrew and everything that I had in mind for the
council.

> Cheers,
>
> Andrew

Regards,
Jamie
--
http://www.linuxuk.org
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tim at samoff

Apr 1, 2009, 8:20 AM

Post #6 of 7 (685 views)
Permalink
Re: Defining the role of the Community Council [In reply to]

Wondering if we could get some of this moved to the wiki...?

If I have time, I will try.

Thanks,
Tim



Jamie Bennett wrote:
> On 27 Mar 2009, at 17:50, Andrew Flegg wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 18:19, Qole<qole.tablet [at] gmail> wrote:
>>> At the moment I get the impression that nobody's exactly sure what
>>> we are
>>> supposed to do, not even the Council members
>> IMNSHO, I had intended the primary role of the council to be
>> representing the views and opinions of the Maemo Community to Nokia,
>> and vice versa.
>
> <snip>
>
> Excellent response Andrew and everything that I had in mind for the
> council.
>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Andrew
>
> Regards,
> Jamie
> --
> http://www.linuxuk.org
> _______________________________________________
> maemo-community mailing list
> maemo-community [at] maemo
> https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-community
>

--
http://tim.samoff.com
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andrew at bleb

Apr 1, 2009, 8:28 AM

Post #7 of 7 (690 views)
Permalink
Re: Defining the role of the Community Council [In reply to]

On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 16:20, Tim <tim [at] samoff> wrote:
>
> Wondering if we could get some of this moved to the wiki...?

Agreed. I have a task on my TODO to tidy up
http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_Council - and make
Task:Community_Council a redirect (since the task is closed).

> If I have time, I will try.

Excellent: well volunteered :-)

Cheers,

Andrew

--
Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew [at] bleb | http://www.bleb.org/
Maemo Community Council chair
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maemo-community mailing list
maemo-community [at] maemo
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