[IAEP] SoaS as a Sugar Labs project.

[David Farning]

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 3:58 PM, Bernie Innocenti<bernie at codewiz.org> wrote:
> El Sat, 22-08-2009 a las 12:45 -0500, David Farning escribió:
>> There has been some confusion over the past several months about how
>> SoaS fits into Sugar Labs.
>>
>> I have been getting the feeling that we are setting ourself up for
>> confusion by not clearly abstracting SoaS from the Learning Platform.
>> On the other hand, initiatives such as sugar on a stick are incredibly
>> valuable to the over all mission of Sugar Labs.
>>
>> As such, I would like to propose that Sugar Labs create a separate
>> category of initiatives, such as SoaS, called projects.  The idea is
>> based on apachs' and eclipses' effective use of projects.
>>
>> The premise behind 'projects' is that initiatives such as SoaS are
>> vital to the overall success of the ecosystem.  Yet, they are in
>> several ways autonomous to the Learning Platform.
>
> Sounds like a very good idea, +1.
>
> Should we also identify a Project Leader for each project like we heave
> done for teams?  I'm more concerned with the possibility of a project
> stalling without any clear leader than the case where leadership is
> being disputed among multiple individuals.

Eclipse and Apache both have criteria for becoming a official
projects.  In fact, they have a several step incubator processes to
help sub-project grow (or die grace fully.)  This strikes me as a
little heavy for Sugar Lab right now.

> Until we observe the latter situation in practice, we could probably
> live without an election process.  Our time would be better spent
> writing a policy that would encourage Project Leaders to report their
> progress regularly (perhaps weekly) and step down responsibly when they
> no longer have the time and motivation to lead properly.

Bernie, would you be interested in creating the project policy for
Sugar Labs?  There is a very good page at
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Development_Resources . The 'Leads: Managing A
Project' and guidelines sections are very valuable.

If I were to work on the policy I would:
1. Take the Eclipse and Apache policies and strip them down to the bare minum.
2. Combine the Eclipse and Apache policies and modify them for Sugar Labs.
3. Identify two initial projects and make sure the policies work for
both of them.
4. Present the project policy for feedback on iaep.
5. Post the draft policy to the wiki

Something as significant as a project-policy will likely take several
iterations through 1-5.

david

> The Fedora package maintainers are organized similarly; the relevant
> documentation in the Fedora wiki could be one source of inspiration for
> us to imitate, although project management in Apache and Eclipse seems
> like a better fit for what we're trying to achieve here.
>
> --
>   // Bernie Innocenti - http://codewiz.org/
>  \X/  Sugar Labs       - http://sugarlabs.org/
>
>
>