On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 11:14 AM, Rahul Sundaram <metherid@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi > > > On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 10:57 AM, Josh Boyer wrote: > >> >> The overall lack of commenting really kind of baffles me still. Now I >> can't tell if it's simply apathy, "silence means agreement", or some >> kind of boycott. > > > > I stopped following this list overall because I got the impression that the > board isn't really doing anything anymore. I do wonder why it should exist > at all. Can anyone (preferably a board member) explain why it shouldn't > just go away? I'll speak mostly for the short term without ruling out the possibility of various reorganizations making the Board as it now exists unnecessary in the future. The Board is tasked via the Fedora Trademark Guidelines with various responsibilities which it takes seriously. I plan to ask Red Hat legal what other arrangements they might be agreeable to where perhaps another group of Fedora contributors could be tasked with these responsibilities but I believe it is important for these responsibilities to rest in the Fedora community somewhere. Someone needs to be in a position to resolve disputes within the community and that responsibility now resides with the Board. While we have created a Community Working Group to help resolve disputes it is specifically designed to do mediation, not to do arbitration, make judgments, or enforce sanctions. The Board gets to be the bad guy and fortunately that obligation is seldom needed. FESCo has oversight of the technical direction of the products Fedora produces, the Board has oversight over the rest of the project. This is an area where I think the Board should probably be a lot more active than it has been historically. The Board sets the strategic philosophy of the project. While I've been on the Board there have been questions directed to the Board concerning whether some change being considered is consistent with the philosophy of the Fedora Project. There needs to be a final arbiter of such questions and today that is the Board's obligation. To quote from the Board's wiki page: "Like any board of directors, the Fedora Project Board advises Fedora leadership and helps the project pursue broad goals. The Board does not generally implement practices, but instead relies on the recognized community leadership including but not limited to the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee to do so." And from my perspective that is exactly what the Board is doing now. John _______________________________________________ advisory-board mailing list advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/advisory-board
