About FESCo

[Nigel Jones]

Christian Iseli wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Apologies for not participating in last week's meeting: real life got
> in the way...  I read the #fedora-meeting logs, and thought I'd share
> my views here.
>
> I view the board as a political body, and an interface between
> corporate sponsors and the Fedora project.  They get to deal with money
> matters, and have the final word on all Fedora matters.  They can
> meddle in technical matters if they so wish, but I do not think it is
> their mandate.  I like spot's approach of saying they tell us "we need
> to fly" and provide for some level ground for us to take off.  Unless
> I'm mistaken, the board head is paid by RH, as is wwoods of QA and f13
> of releng.  These folks are incredibly useful and dedicated to get each
> release off the ground.
>   
 From my POV FESCo is essentially an oversight group, keeping tabs 
making sure everything is how it should be and at the same time making 
sure that in the future the project is on a good pathway to success.
> I see FESCo as a bunch of elected volunteers that people come to and
> ask "is it ok if ..." when they have questions wrt what they can put in
> Fedora.  FESCo's answer should have arbitration value for all technical
> matters.  I think FESCo members should also be willing to act as
> emergency response team when some fire needs to be put out, e.g. a mass
> rebuild needs some manual help to complete.
>   
Yes, your only too right, and by all means FESCo members should be one 
of the first people there to help out, but as you mentioned they are 
elected volunteers, they can't be around every single minute of every 
day to help out (I'm sure we'd like them to be, and it's something that 
can be looked at assuming a more regionally diverse group) I don't see 
how we can expect *that* much, at the very least, I expect them to be 
active and considerate of issues concerning Fedora.
> I do not think it is FESCo's role to come up with ideas of what the
> future should be like.  I think this kind of creativity is better
> served by SIGs or individual contributors.
>
> I agree a lot of FESCo's work is just rubber stamping propositions from
> SIGs.  But I think someone needs to be there to do it.  As  Fedora
> contributor, I feel better knowing that a bunch of elected volunteers
> is manning the deck at all time, watching what's going on and making
> sure we are not headed straight into the iceberg.
>   
I agree, BUT...

An SIG can't draft every single policy isn't really practical, 
contributors like ourselves elect members to FESCo (one our rights as a 
contributor) to represent our views to not only rubber-stamp policy 
proposals from SIGs but to also ensure that the contributor (our) 
'experience' is at it's optimum by passing new policies.  For instance 
the Sponsors Responsibility Policy (a great step into maintainer retention).

Just some extra cents for the kitty.

- Nigel