How to get something improved or realized in Fedora Extras

[Thorsten Leemhuis]

Hi,

I mentioned it in the summary from the last FESCo meeting already, but I
wanted to explicitly start a discussion about it.

We never wrote down how to get something improved or realized in Fedora
Extras and how FESCo works I just took some time and actually did this
(tibbs improved it slightly; thx to him!) and posted it to the wiki at:
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras/Schedule/HowToGetSomethingRealized#Proposal

So, do people agree with this? Is there something missing?

Find the test below to make replying easier. If there are typos or if
you want to make slight adjustments feel free to fix/do them directly in
the wiki.

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= Digest =

FESCo is the body that leads Fedora Extras. There are some jobs that
FESCo and its members need to do, but having FESCo does not mean that
all improvements and decisions for Fedora Extras need to be made  by
FESCo. The committee rather wants to maintain a flat hierarchy where all
medium or bigger decisions are normally developed and acknowledged by
the Fedora Extras community. This means that often those who wants
something to happen are expected to do the legwork to make it happen.

==  FESCO ==

Something as big as Fedora Extras needs some sort of leading body as
otherwise sooner or later chaos would arise. FESCo, the Fedora Extras
Steering Committee, is this group for Fedora Extras. But that doesn't
mean that all decisions, policies, proposals, improvements and
everything else needs to come from FESCo and its members.  Fedora Extras
is rather meant as a community effort and all its contributors should be
able to influence how this whole business it run.

===  Workflow to get something realized or improved ===

If you think "Extras needs foo" or "Extras should realize
Brand-new-Idea" then the way to get it realized in Extras works like this:

 * you poke a bit around on IRC, on fedora-extras-list and/or in a FESCo
meeting and discuss your idea roughly to evaluate what other people
think about it. If you get the impression that some people back the idea
in general then it's probably worth investing more work and proceeds with it

 * you work out a detailed proposal that outlines the whole thing; it
should contain things like "why Fedora Extras needs this", "How is it
getting realized", "Who will be responsible" and stuff like that

 * you put that proposal somewhere in the wiki; if it's something big
that needs FESCo approval sooner or later you put it directly in the
namespace and format for such things by using the proper template by
using a url like this:
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras/Schedule/foo?action=edit&template=Extras/Schedule/TopicTemplate
(s/foo/something else/ of course); if its just a small thing add a note
on http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras/Schedule/MISC

 * send the proposal to the list for public discussion;

 * if you want explicit FESCo feedback at this point ask the FESCo chair
to bring the topic up in a FESCo meeting to chat a bit about it

 * integrate feedback you receive in that discussion directly in the
wiki and/or encourage contributors to directly work on the document in
the wiki

 * if there are major disagreements integrate the parts that are
controversial into a separate section. Or encourage other people to
write a counter proposal that suits their expectations better.

 * FESCo members are strongly encouraged to participate in the public
discussion. It is unacceptable for a FESCo members to stay quiet during
a public discussion and to step up in a FESCo meeting later "I think
it's totally bullshit"

 * in case it is a controversial topic send the re-worked proposal to
the list for a second (or third) discussion

 * if you think you got enough feedback send a mail to the FESCo-chair
asking to bring it up in the next FESCo meeting

 * FESCo will then look at it in the meeting; in an ideal world it
should be just a "The community want this, it does not hurt the project,
so it ACKed". As its often a bit more complicated it might be a good
idea to participate in the meeting. Maybe the issue even needs to be
brought up in multiple meeting.

/!\ Note above scheme is exactly the scheme that is used by
FESCo-members, too, to get something realized. There are no differences
in this workflow between FESCo-members and non-FESCo-members.

/!\ Note2: The above scenario is a rough scheme; there are often
situations were some things need to be done slightly differently, but it
should help everyone to get the rough idea how to realize stuff.

=== What FESCo is not ===

FESCo is not a dumping ground for work. Sure, FESCo members have some
jobs they need to do (accept sponsors, kmods, static pacakges, ...;
guide the project; take care of things that gone wrong and fix them;
organize things that need to be done -- mass rebuilds for example). But
that often a lot of work already besides simply maintaining their own
packages, so there is often not much time left for realizing other,
often new things or ideas.

Asking FESCo to realize Brand-New-Big-Idea thus often does not work very
well. Sure, you can ask FESCo or one of its members to work out a
proposal realize it. But you should not expect FESCo to work on it
immediately. There are simply to many request to work on something so
FESCo has to set priorities to get the most important things done first.
The best way to get something realized is to do it yourself and/or get
other (FESCo-) people interested in it so you realize it together. In
this scope please remember that nobody in FESCo is getting payed for
being in FESCo or improving Extras; all members do the FESCo-work it is
their spare time (yes, there are some Red Hat employees in FESCo, but
none of those are getting paid for their work in FESCo).

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CU
thl