[OOTB-hive] [GOV] Thoughts

[Richard Esplin]

I read most of the list, and skimmed the rest. Exciting times!

I had a few thoughts that I wanted to share. Rather than lots of short emails, 
I'll group them together.

* Voting Window: Jeff proposed a 48 hour voting window. I think that is too 
short. It is too easy to go 2 days without checking the mailing list. I 
propose a 3 day window, maybe 4. I don't think this will be an impediment to 
progress, as we will only be voting for important stuff where there appears to 
be disagreement. Having a longer window will help us to adequately discuss the 
issue and maybe reach consensus. I have the philosophy that important things 
should take time to resolve.

* Alfresco Employees Voting: I think Alfresco employees should be allowed to 
vote. Each is participating for his or her own reasons, and should be able to 
help determine the direction of the Order. Allowing them to vote will help 
them stay motivated and engage, which I think is a big asset. I think it is 
reasonable to say that Alfresco employees are excluded from being members of 
the board. I also think it is reasonable to exclude the official Alfresco Head 
of Community from voting, if the Order feels like that increases independence.

* Alfresco Certified Partners Voting: I think employees of Alfresco Certified 
Partners should be allowed to vote and participate as any other member of the 
Order. It is in the Order's best interests to encourage full participation 
from as many certified partners as possible.

* Conflicts of Interest: I think concerns with Alfresco employees and employees 
of Certified Partners voting is really a concern about conflicts of interest and 
maintaining the independence of the Order from any single company. The Order 
should have a clear policy about what it considers a conflict of interest, and 
have an expectation that people should abstain from voting if they have a 
conflict. If a conflict is later discovered, then the votes should be 
disqualified. An example conflict would be "my boss told me how to vote". So if 
all the Alfresco employees vote as a block, and it can be shown Alfresco 
encouraged them to do so, their votes would be disqualified.

* Commercial Interests: Many people in the Order have a commercial interest in 
the products the Order produces, so we should be clear about how much an 
individual should be allowed to influence the Order to support their current 
business model. Should someone be allowed to vote against improving an add-on 
that competes with their commercial product? I do not consider this a conflict 
of interest that would exclude a vote. My opinion is that it can't be avoided, 
so we might as well be clear that it is going on and discuss openly the 
perceived motivations of those who vote. They can then correct those 
perceptions.

* Closed Source Add-ons: I dislike the idea of promoting closed source add-ons 
to Community Edition. Using a closed source license makes it harder to 
collaborate as a community. I would rather leave that to the official Alfresco 
Channel, or to each Order member in their paid employment. Full disclosure: I 
am regularly accused of being a free/libre software zealot.

* Names: Alfresco's trademark guidelines are out of date, and need to be 
clarified for community use. However, regardless of Alfresco's official policy, I 
think it is best to keep official OOTB names distinct from Alfresco. The Order 
can use subtitles like "Order of the Bee: An Alfresco Professional 
Organization" to clarify the relationship. Then it can evolve as the Order 
does. And for the record, I vote for the distribution being called 
"Honeycomb".

I appreciate all of the enthusiasm and participation from the members of this 
list. I have learned a lot from the conversation and am excited to share it 
with the rest of the team at Alfresco. (Well, with those who aren't already on 
the list. <grin>)

Cheers,

Richard

-- 
Richard Esplin
Head of Community
Tel: +1 801 855 0866
Mobile: +1 801 735 4220
Skype: esplinr

Alfresco
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