[development] #drupal and #drupal-contribute split (Was: Re: Proposal: Move all dev support off this list to new StackExchange site)

[Shai Gluskin]

At DrupalConSF core developers meeting in 2010, I presented,

Evaluate Core Group Process in Order to Recruit and Retain New
Participants<http://content2zero.com/sites/default/files/Shai-Gluskin-Lightening-Core-Community.pdf>

There was a well-attended break-out session that followed. I took some notes
and someone else took notes. I didn't follow-up at all and I take full
responsibility for not following up.

I was moved that my lightening talk was accepted. And I understood my talk
being accepted as evidence of the openness of the community. It's not that I
was completely unknown, but I certainly wasn't central to anything. I"d
helped out with docs and in core on small UI stuff, help text and UI string
changes.

I have been fascinated and inspired by the Drupal project and its process
and I have loved having the chance to both watch it and participate.

In trying to be reflective about my own lack of follow-up, it comes down to
the fact that I couldn't afford the time. My Drupal-related 1-person
business is site-building, serving small businesses and non-profits. My
business benefits very little from my involvement in core. I do feel I'm
pulling my weight for the Drupal project in general by helping at
support at drupal.org and posting to issue queues etc.

But I don't have enough hours to make a significant contribution on core,
whether in helping sort out the process side (probably where I'd be most
valuable), or in the UI, strings, docs, etc as I had been involved.

The recent Earl/Acquia collab on a new UI for Views in an interesting case
study. While I don't want to minimize the huge personal dedication and long
hours logged by the people involved, I will not that most of them were full
time employees working on that assignment as an essential part of their
"day" jobs.

For this issue to be seriously addressed, I think the Drupal Association
needs to take it on directly. It will likely need to form a committee to
study the matter.

The title of my talk was "*Evaluate* Core Group Process in Order to Recruit
and Retain New Participants." When I look back at the notes of the follow-up
session, a lot of it drifted into thinking of ideas about *solving* the
problem. I think evaluation of a group process is harder, and may require
the help of an outsider. Without a thorough evaluation, it will be shooting
at darts to know which of many ideas should be followed up on to help solve
the problem.

While it wasn't all roses, I think most people believe that Mark Boulton's
participation in Drupal improved Drupal. What we've done for design with
Mark Boulton maybe we need to do with group process for core development.

Shai
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