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

[From: Tim]

http://maemo.org/maemo-meeting/



Qole wrote:
> I just want to apologize for my poor wording. I do not intend to
> "police" and "boss" anyone.
>
> And nobody is in my "crosshairs".
>
> But I have been extremely unclear as to what my role as a Councilor is,
> in relation to the paid maemo.org <http://maemo.org> team, the
> community, and Nokia. Where does everyone sit here? As I've asked
> before, what are my responsibilities?
>
> Quim has made it clear that there is definitely some expectation that
> the Council, as representatives of the Community, has some
> responsibility to assess the performance of the maemo.org
> <http://maemo.org> team, especially since the final hiring (and contract
> renewal) decision seems to rest at least partly on us.
>
> I am taking my role as Councilor very seriously, but I need to know
> exactly what that means before I can do a good job at it. I can't do a
> good job if I don't really know what a "good job" looks like. Thanks to
> Jaffa's work on the wiki page, that is getting clearer, and this thread
> is making things clearer still. (I think Jaffa could probably update our
> page with some of the things in this thread)
>
> Jeremiah, I think you need to realize that the community and the Council
> needs you to do a bit more reporting, with more detail and precision,
> than perhaps is "usual", for the simple reason that your position really
> is unprecedented. We mostly know what a webmaster is supposed to do.
> Webmasters have been around for a few years, and there's lots of them
> out there.
>
> But what does a debmaster do? Well, since there haven't been any
> debmasters before (that I know of), we are relying on four things:
> (1) our own expectations: what do we think you should do?
> (2) your job description: what were you hired to do?
> (3) your past activities: what have you been doing so far?
> (4) your future goals: what are you (and the community) planning for you
> to do in the future?
>
> The problem I had at first, and I think this is the source of the
> frustration you sensed in me, is that I was relying on (1) too much, if
> not entirely; I had a set of preconceived ideas about what you were
> going to do, and when I perceived that you didn't seem to be doing some
> of the things I wanted you to do, I became somewhat disappointed. But
> I've since realized that this was an unfair assessment, since, of all
> the things in my list, (1) is the least useful measurement.
>
> In fact, I would say that (1) is not only useless, but quite dangerous.
> It should be eliminated as quickly as possible, to be replaced by the
> other three things. So I've set about trying to get some of the other
> three things into place. Items (3) and (4) are the subject of this
> thread, and it seems that you and Tim are working on (2) right now, too.
>
> I sincerely believe that getting good reporting, processes and
> documentation into place here will benefit everyone, and reduce the
> chances of things "getting ugly" in the future. I want lots of
> transparency, and I really want good will.
>
> I'm really sorry if I have caused any loss of good will here; that was
> not my intent and it isn't useful in building community or developing a
> working relationship.
>
> As an addendum: Looking at the way people are quoting my hastily chosen
> words, everyone seems to have access to the logs of the maemo-meeting
> channel for that meeting. Where are they to be found? Can someone
> provide a link?
>
> On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 6:10 AM, Tim <tim at samoff.com
> <mailto:tim at samoff.com>> wrote:
>
>     Hi,
>
>     Jeremiah: I understand where you are coming from, but...
>
>      > ext Jeremiah Foster wrote:
>      > This is exactly what is happening now. When Alan writes
>      > "I'm still unclear about the council's role in "policing" the paid
>      > maemo.org <http://maemo.org> team.
>
>     I hope I'm not assuming too much by saying that Alan just asking a
>     question here. As a new member of a Council who is only just beginning
>     its second term of existence, he is honestly unclear about some of the
>     processes... Which, as a Council member, I am too. These are the things
>     that we've been elected to work out, as Alan is attempting to do -- in
>     an open, community-oriented discussion.
>
>      > The current council is ignoring this and looking for ways to "police"
>      > and "boss" before the roles are defined.
>
>     I disagree. In fact, I've asked you (twice now) to send a statement of
>     your own roles/responsibilities to the community for review and
>     discussion. I still haven't seen it.
>
>     I'm not saying that I think you are doing poorly -- from what I've seen,
>     I think you are doing a great job -- but what Alan is doing is what I
>     have asked you to do. (Two way street?)
>
>     --
>     http://tim.samoff.com
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>
>

-- 
http://tim.samoff.com