User:Toshio/Flock2014 Governance discussion

Brainstorming Agenda Items

Add anything you think might be good to discuss to the list. After a few weeks, number80 and toshio will try to organize and prioritize it for discussion at flock.

• figure out what the difference in responsibility is between vote-elected bodies and non-elected bodies
• How do we want central direction for fedora to actually work with diverging products?
• merge fesco and board
• in case we merge the fesco and the board, how do we ensure that non-technical contributors gets represented in the new governance body (HG)
• it would be useful to have a map of sorts of the current structure of all of the boards, committees, working groups, subprojects, teams, and sigs in Fedora. (Brainstorm this?)
• "Fedora Council" proposal

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I made some notes on some leadership areas that I see as part of the board's roles, and I'll list them as a starting point.... hopefully that will be helpful.

• "Supreme Court of Fedora Values" -- When there are questions about how

 some activity in the product might relate to the Fedora Foundations, the
 board is there to make the final decision. A more activist version of this
 might be that when something seems to be off course, the board steps in.

• Legal and Trademark approval, including that for new Spins. I see some

 open tickets that might relate to this.

• Structure of the Project. This is one of the things that's pretty clearly

 laid out in the wiki pages about Fedora's governance.

  * Definition of subprojects, and recognizing which ones are active.
    (As I look at the left column of the wiki, this is clearly not
    happening.)

  * Support and oversight of subprojects that aren't under FESCo. (Or
     FAmSco?)

  * Elections. This is another problem area, I think, although that may
    just be symptomatic.

• Strategic planning and leadership. How can we collectively help set

 direction for the project and line up resources for implementation? How
 can we encourage community collaboration towards those common goals?

 (Note that this does not imply a "command and control" structure.  There
 is a need, though, to look at where the community is going and where it
 wants to go, and to help make a cohesive map. This will help us identify
 areas where there might be obstacles (so we can do what we can to remove
 them), and possibly areas where we need to allocate resources (directly
 in some cases, indirectly in others).

• Finances and budget -- possibility for more direct responsibility over

 Fedora community budget