[Sugar-devel] A small request.

[Michael Stone]

Dear Sugar team,

I've been very confused (and frankly, significantly angered) by recent remarks
that I've encountered both in person (e.g. from Bernie) and in #sugar (e.g.
from Simon and Tomeu) about how sugar-related folk are thinking about the issue
of mass activity installation and update. Consequently, I'd find it really
helpful if we could sit down, lay out all the agreed facts, disagreements, and
desires, and then figure out a mutually agreeable plan for the future.

In order to prepare for that discussion, though, I thought I'd pass along a
pair of perceptions that I have formed based on how I've observed people
attempting to address the issue so far. Feel free to dispute, request
clarification, or best, amplify in reply as you see fit.

   1) I have observed minimal respect for or perhaps desire to work together in
      spite of people's legitimately varying priorities, expertise, and
      imperatives.
    
      For example -- notice how much divergence there is within this selection
      of things that various people seem to be /most/ concerned with?:
      
        a) disputing the extent to which sugar needs to care about automatic
           mass activity installation / update 
    
        b) grumbling about who might have to maintain code that solves the
           problem or about the possiblity of having to touch code written in a
           style different than their preferred style
    
        c) using a sane protocol that, e.g.
    
             * permits competing interoperable front and back ends, 
             * is bandwidth efficient
             * supports caching, redirection, or overlays
             * server-less or server-based usage, etc.
             * works for all end users
    
        d) using technology X to provide a specific experience to a tiny
           slice of the users who are going to have to interact with any system
           (or with the absence of a system) that we might provide

      This divergence of attention is never going to go away, folks. We need to
      get over it and get on with life, recognizant of the fact that most of our
      biggest dreams /cannot/ be accomplished unless we become a bit more
      willing to help each other to accomplish end goals that we, personally,
      don't care so strongly about but which we know matter to one another.

   2) Pursuant to the previous observation, I really think that various
      central people need to start doing their homework about what motivates
      their compatriots, what demotivates them, and (most relevant for the
      activity updater arguments), /why/ those compatriots made the decisions
      that they made in the past, and /how/ they'd like to be involved in
      revisiting decisions which are currently perceived as holding up progress.

Finally, please understand that I have no doubt that I'm as guilty as anyone of
some of the sins that I've described above. Consequently, if you think that's
the case, please feel encouraged to approach me about the problem so that we
can search for some reasonable compromise which leaves each of us less
frustrated with the other.

Regards,

Michael