[development] Drupal core initiatives

[webchick]

On 6/13/11 10:50 AM, Greg Knaddison wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 8:35 AM, Gábor Hojtsy<gabor at hojtsy.hu>  wrote:
>> Well, our current approach is to use g.d.o group posts in the Drupal
>> Initiatives group that anyone can sign up for. The group is at
>> http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-initiatives
> Yes and no.
>
> I agree with Daniel's concern that too much of this is happening in
> closed venues, often with the claim that it's the only way to get
> things done. And I think even you, Gabor, share a bit of this concern
> based on your tweet from three hours ago -
> http://twitter.com/#!/gaborhojtsy/status/80225914683785216
>
> I won't say the mailing list is the right place, but I do think it's
> important to consider more perspectives than simply the insider
> groups. In my opinion the best way to do that is to have discussions
> out in the open.
Can you cite anyone actually claiming that "closed venues is the only 
way to get things done"? If so, I'd be happy to smack 'em around. :)

My observation has been that this stuff is pretty much *all* happening 
publicly (or at worst, a public summary of IRC/IRL/e-mail discussions 
shortly after they take place). The problem, in my experience, is there 
are way too many freaking channels for this information between 
g.d.o/mailing lists/issue queues/tags/etc. so it's really easy to miss 
it until it's too late. Hence my other long e-mail about trying to build 
a framework around the communication stuff.

We got the CMI report http://groups.drupal.org/node/155559 out as fast 
as we possibly could (~72 hours). It was *really* fricking hard to write 
though, because the code was literally changing under our feet as we 
were writing it up, since we were also actively trying to bring more 
perspectives into it from other folks in the coder lounge at DCCO to 
make sure it survived some basic "beta" tests. And I wanted to make sure 
all of the folks at the sprint agreed with what was in it before it was 
broadcast broadly; I certainly didn't want to misrepresent their views 
or get technical details wrong, which delayed it another 24 hours or so.

But it's important that to note that this is a _summary of the 
configuration management sprint_, *not* a "this is how we're doing it, 
suckas! Eat it!" The info's out there to comment on, be picked apart, 
iterated on, whatever. If there's an impression otherwise given, that's 
certainly not the intent. All of these D8 initiatives are still in the 
*very* early stages, and not a lick of code has been committed to core 
yet (or, in most cases, even written). It's the absolute *perfect* time 
to jump in and chime in with your thoughts!

If you're getting an impression other than that, we need to figure out 
where that's coming from, and squash it.
> > From personal observation I believe Greg Dunlap is spending a
> significant effort on seeking and synthesizing feedback and I
> encourage everyone to do the same.
Greg is fortunate in that he's subsidized 50% by his employer to work on 
his initiative. Other initiative owners are not so lucky, so it's harder 
for them to both manage their initiatives, read and respond to feedback 
on discussions, write/review code, AND write up thoughtful and useful 
status reports to the community. I'm trying to help share some of this 
burden, because I'm subsidized as well, but I'm also one of two people 
who can commit to D7, for example. :\

So:

- Can you write English?
- Do you have 5 or so hours per week free?
- Do you have an interest in one or more of these initiatives?

If so, *you* could help with announcement writing and other 
communication tasks, and that would be a *super* important way to help 
these initiatives.

-Angie

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