Topic: A Proposal For An Organizational Structure For Our Community

[wellsi]

The 6th Alpha for SME 7.0 hit the mirrors at the weekend so there is a lot of development going on.

At the moment some co-ordination and willing volunteers would help a lot. There have been a lot of people saying that they are willing to help - but then very little sign of actual work. This may be because 100s of people are being busy or may be because everyone is waiting for someone to lead them.

Over the last few weeks there has been an off-and-on discussion about maintenance on the ruffdogs list - but no-one has stepped up and volunteered to take care of this. Also only a handful of people have joined the discussion at all.

It would be a pity if SME Server died of apathy - but  it is hard to see the community achieving much at the moment.

So if you want to see SME Server continue, why not sign up and help out: http://listserv.ruffdogs.com

(See the news item regarding this list http://no.longer.valid/news/article.php?storyid=48)

I had also started plans to move my server to a new distro, but the work on SME7 and the new surge of interest in the community a while back meant that I put a lot more effort into SME instead.

[bkrosco]

I agree that the work on SME7 is promising. Plus, I'm just finding anything close to what SME offers. It sure beats doing things from scratch.

[treyh]

I agree that the work on SME7 is promising. Plus, I'm just finding anything close to what SME offers. It sure beats doing things from scratch.

I agree with the above quote. I have found nothing else that even begins to compare with SME 6.

Yes, I could build a linux server from scratch and not sleep for several weeks lol.

SME allows users to install, configure, and put in place a fully functional email, web, and vpn server in a matter of minutes. Which important in the line of work I do. Also plugs/contribs take a matter of minutes to install.

For now, SME just can't be beat. I will be very unhappy if this project dies.

[nickbrown]

First of all, Hi! I’m Nick, a network admin who also manages a few websites and maintains company Network Infrastructures in my spare time.

I have used SME for several years, and this is the first time I have made a post, Simply to show my support for the project and let people who are new to SME know that, While the structure of SME is a little unstable at the moment, it is still by far one of the most user friendly and powerful Linux builds.

The proposed structure, I believe will be a positive change for the SME community and look forward to seeing it take off. I also endeavour to assist the future movement of the SME community, both by offering assistance with the use of the product but also assistance from a business point of view if relevant.

Thankyou to the numerous other supporters who help make this project possible.

Nick Brown  
IntiCon.net

[simnux]

While the proposed organization is a positive step, I find it has one major flaw. It offers too much product control to developers.

Developer control of a product can be a positive thing when a product is immature and needs to expand its feature set rapidly. As a product matures, however, developers are notoriously bad at managing changes outside of their own development process. They tend to get pet projects that require lots of care and feeding, or they decide an otherwise worthwhile feature is not going to happen on the basis of some obscure technical nuance or personal preference, or conversely they implement features for their gee-whiz factor rather than their general applicability.

I'd prefer to see this three person committee formed from persons who are not directly involved in the work. For example, technical needs can be addressed by a competent developer, but that developer should not be an SME Server developer. Likewise, communications can be overseen by an experienced writer or webmaster, but that person should not be doing the actual work. And so forth. This would afford the community a certain level of abstraction, which would be a good thing in translating between the technical desires and community desires of the product.

[wallyrp]

Good Morning,

Campaign Ad: The proposed organizational structure is a great base for better things to come. Make sure your vote is counted! Stand up with the proud and how many?  

I would agree with the above posting regarding developers in a general way. My angle on this is based upon my years of experience in the school industry dealing with teachers. Teachers teach everyday and use technology to assist them. Being a computer technician sometimes conflicts with their abilities to use that technology. Over the past two years, I've had the chance to meet a number of teachers that are somewhat tech savvy. They have "enlightened" me as to their duties and responsibilities. This type of liason between the two worlds has assisted me in providing better service while still being able to implement things behind the scenes that bolster security and the likes.

Basically, the above rambling means that I would like to see a committee or some kind of panel that is made up of a mixture of folks. Example: Redneck, City Slicker, College Educated - Regular user, High-end support user, Brainy Programmer. This would provide an all angle approach that would hopefully provide balance to SME.

This and $1.50 will buy you a cup of coffee in most places.

[cranky]

Hi to all that are following this thread.

As you've probably seen in the news postings, a small group of people are working on refining the draft constitution that was posted some time ago.  This group is a cross-section of the members here and hopefully the finished document will be balanced and workable.

To those of you that are still referring to the first draft (the link to which appears in the first post in this thread), I would refer you now to the segments of that document that have been reworked by our group and published.  The links to these new segments are found in the news postings.  They replace the corresponding segments in the original draft and should be used as the basis for any future discussions.

Ron has done a good job (as always) of keeping the community posted on our developments and we hope to meet the timetable as discussed in the news.

So to those that have been lamenting the passing of SME server in the earlier posts - hang in there.  Between the work on the new releases (6.5 & 7.0) that is underway and the fact that we are organizing, IMO this could be an exciting year for SME fans and users!