Meeting:Board meeting 2009-05-14

Fedora Project Board Meeting :: Thursday 2009-05-14

Roll Call

• Attendees: Chris Tyler, Tom Callaway, Bill Nottingham, Seth Vidal, Chris Aillon, Harald Hoyer, Jesse Keating, Matt Domsch, Paul Frields
• Regrets: John Poelstra, Dimitris Glezos
• Minutes were recorded collaboratively using a gobby session

Export Restrictions

• could the Fedora Board be a catalyst for change?
• where to start?
• Paul: Start by looking for active groups
  • If not, maybe we can form one?
  • Paul would like to solicit one or two Board members to help with this particular activity
  • Canadian FOSS exceptions: http://www.efc.ca/pages/doc/crypto-export.html
    • Canada has a separate list of prohibited countries
• We could do this as a community exercise, but it would be a difficult road if the people who show up to help are all from embargoed nations
  • spot is not aware of any existing efforts (doesn't mean they don't exist)

Upcoming board elections

• email to f-a-b by Matt Domsch
• terms are expiring for the following members
  • Chris Tyler
  • Harald Hoyer
  • Jesse Keating
  • Tom "Spot" Callaway
  • Seth Vidal
• are there any initiatives that the board would like to pursue before these

members' terms are up?

• Paul to send nomination announcement
• Matt asked whether we should tighten up nomination period to 2 weeks
  • IRC/town hall for one week, elections for 2 weeks, finishing on June 22
  • skvidal: When is the first test phase of F12?
    • Feature freeze is July 28th

Toxicity

• If fedora has a person so toxic as to be destructive - what, if anything, can we do about it?
• Tired of people using f-devel-l as a platform for antics
  • We seem to be caught in a process quagmire
  • It's been going on too long to be tolerated further
  • Should we ban toxic people?
    • Arbitrariness of applying a ban could lend credence to paranoia
  • Do we need a code of conduct?
    • Spot suggests "Be excellent to each other."
  • Paul: There are just as many RHT'ers contributing to the negativity as volunteers
  • Continued uncivil behavior without consequences has created an environment that breeds more uncivil behavior
  • Need volunteers to enforce civility
  • Spot: need a definition of the sorts of behavior that would lead to moderation/rebuke
    • Obvious examples:
      • serious threats of violence or other illegal actions
      • profanity directed at people or groups (Carlin's 7 dirty words?)
      • discrimination or libel based on race, creed, sex, orientation, employer, national origin
  • Spot: one warning
  • Jesse: warning == moderate for a day?
  • Harald: is the warning public on the list? group: no.
  • Pontification by Paul on not being evil to each other; the bell, book and candle.
  • Chris Aillon: ACK on warning. iow, moderated for a day or until they ack, whichever is longer
• Purpose is to improve the tone of discussions on the list

The problem: The Board is disappointed at the degradation in tone and signal of some Fedora Project lists. The proposal (report this as intention to FAB and revisit next week): To resolve this, the Board appoints one or more Board members or other Board-approved volunteers to monitor Fedora Project mailing lists. The Board will warn violators of our "Be excellent to each other" policy in the form of a one-day list moderation (with notice to the poster). Messages not allowed through will be returned to the poster with explanation as to why they were not allowed. If after one day of moderation, the violation continues, the case will be brought to the Board for further action, which could include permanent moderation, complete removal from the project, or other remedies.

 Be Excellent to each other == No personal attacks, profanity directed at people or groups, serious threats of violence, or other things seen by the monitor as to be purposefully disrespectful.

Unfinished business

• "What is Fedora?": Refining Fedora's target audience and objectives
  • http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board/Meetings/2009-04-29

Next Meeting

• Date: Thu 2009-05-21
• Time: 17:00 UTC