Re: Istio Steering Committee


Matt Farina
 

Thanks for bringing this up Stephen.

I would suggest that the structure (which includes SC or not) can't fix problems that may be cultural. For example, knowing ones audience is important. Taking the time to sit down with users, understand them, understand when one project ends and others begin, and work for the benefit of the people involved is a cultural trait.

I would like to see more that teaches this trait.

On Tue, Aug 25, 2020, at 3:42 PM, Stephen Augustus wrote:
(+ SIG ContribStrat)

I could see the overarching theme as "distilling what it could mean to be a 'good maintainer'".

SIG Contributor Strategy is exactly the kind of venue to have this discussion and we'd welcome (kind) discourse around this across our main meeting, WG Governance, and the soon-to-be-launched Maintainer's Circle.


-- Stephen

On Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 15:38 alexis richardson <alexis@...> wrote:
Agree that SC should (if suggested) remain a known good option, and Not Compulsory.

Agree that some projects are "small" - but i would have said Helm is small!  My belief is that SCs can help growth. Many projects now have numerous repos and moving parts.  The direction may not be clear.  End users may want more of a say.  Contributors and maintainers should welcome this, and most do.


On Tue, 25 Aug 2020, 20:30 Josh Berkus, <jberkus@...> wrote:
On 8/25/20 12:20 PM, Alexis Richardson wrote:
> During the summer break it occurred to me that many of the advantages i
> could envisage in adding SCs would be achieved if the notion of
> Maintainer was broadened to include non coding people.  But you still
> get benefit from org level direction over the top.

And for large projects like Helm, an SC has these benefits.  Just like
Kubernetes.  But in smaller projects, where you're looking at a couple
dozen regular contributors period, there's not a lot o benefit --
generally the exact same people are on the SC as are in the other
groups.  Unless you add someone from outside the project, in which case
you have different problems.

For a small project, I'd recommend (were I advising them) trying to
broaden their maintainers group to include non-code maintainers (like
docs and advocacy), which is usually a better approach when dealing with
a small pool.

Of course, it's really up to what the project wants.

> Fwiw, i don't believe in imposing or forcing things either.  Apologies
> if I have given that impression.

We have to recognize that if we make an SC an alternative for other
governance requirements, that will result in an SC being imposed on a
few projects where the contributors otherwise don't want one.

BTW, in this thread I am speaking as a single member of SIG-Contributor
Strategy, and not for the whole committee.  Other members of the SIG may
well disagree with me.  I am also not speaking for Red Hat.

--
--
Josh Berkus
Kubernetes Community
Red Hat OSPO




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