[maemo-community] maemo.org paid contributors (was Re: Monthly Sprint Proposal)

[From: Jeremiah Foster]

Hello,

On Apr 7, 2009, at 8:20, Quim Gil wrote:

> when it's the time for contract renewals (every six months)
> Tero will basically come to you (the council) and ask whether you are
> happy or not in order to proceed.


You have an obligation to be a bit more formal than that.

The professionals who work on maemo.org work very hard, they deserve  
the courtesy and respect of being treated with professionalism. For  
example, the virtual machine which runs garage.maemo.org is heavily  
burdened and has spikes in polling making it hard to administer. I  
think Niels does an amazing job keeping it running and available to  
the community, but that might not be visible to the council since they  
do not log in to the server and do actual work there.

Turning to the council for a judgement of people's performance leaves  
lots of room for personal opinions and unprofessional appraisals, this  
will almost certainly be an area of contention that will require  
delicate handling.

What you both (qole and Quim) seem to forget is that there are people  
in these positions. Neither of you are being particularly professional  
in your ad hoc decision making. I strongly encourage both of you to  
think about the people involved, how to clearly define the roles so  
that those in them understand their responsibilities and can execute  
them, and to clearly define the roles and obligations of the council  
vis-a-vis the maemo.org staff.

If you want greater transparency and accountability, you need to  
assume greater responsibility for that to happen.

Jeremiah