Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
| From: | "Jared K. Smith" <jsmith-AT-fedoraproject.org> | |
| To: | announce-AT-lists.fedoraproject.org | |
| Subject: | Change in Fedora leadership | |
| Date: | Tue, 7 Feb 2012 07:54:16 -0500 | |
| Message-ID: | <CA+0bQbGHZo8674GG1_9n3orOXnYLNKAogUPKA6N_M4bWCqbXjQ@mail.gmail.com> | |
| Archive‑link: | Article |
One of the things I like most about the Fedora Project is the opportunity for people to move and grow in (and out) of different roles and responsibilities. The position of Fedora Project Leader, in particular, has never been a long-term leadership position, but one that regularly invites new people to assume the role and bring new ideas and new energy to the project. I would like to take this opportunity to share some of my thoughts about being the Fedora Project Leader, and inform you of upcoming changes in Fedora leadership. Any time we make leadership changes in Fedora, we that that challenge seriously, and do everything we can to make the leadership transition as smooth as possible. Although I've been using Fedora since the split from Red Hat Linux, it's only been the past five of six years that I've really been an active contributor. Sure, I was hanging out on the mailing lists, trying out the pre-releases and reporting bugs, but I didn't really consider myself a part of Fedora. It wasn't until I got started with the Docs team and attended my first FUDCon that I truly caught the spirit of the Fedora community. Since then, I've thoroughly enjoyed rubbing shoulders with people who are infinitely smarter than me, and I've learned a tremendous amount -- both about the technical bits and bytes, and also about free software communities. And for the last little while, it's been my honor and privilege to serve the community as the Fedora Project Leader. The role of Fedora Project Leader isn't an easy role, but I am proud of the things we've been able to accomplish both within the distribution and within the community during my tenure. We've had three solid Fedora releases during my time as FPL, each one with a myriad of new features. I've worked hard to expand our international outreach, and to get more international representation on the Fedora Board. We've updated the Fedora website. We've improved our quality assurance processes. We've been able to deliver Fedora images for the Amazon EC2 cloud on release day. We've improved our translation system. I'm thankful for all those who have worked hard to help drive Fedora forward. Now is the time for me to pass the torch to the next Fedora Project Leader. As you probably already know, Red Hat employs the FPL to ensure someone is accountable to Red Hat and the rest of the community for the Fedora Project as a whole. After all, many Fedora leaders have referred to the FPL as "the one throat to choke" when it comes to Fedora. The FPL is still subject to the same process as any other Red Hat hire, though, and ultimately Red Hat is responsible for that decision. It is imperative that the decision be a good one for the entire Fedora community, so the Fedora Board is consulted about the selection. This process has continued to work well for several previous FPLs, and the Board provided positive feedback about our selection this time around, too. I'm happy to announce that Red Hat has selected Robyn Bergeron to be the next Fedora Project Leader. Robyn has proven herself in the Fedora community over the last several years, and I have complete confidence in her abilities to lead the Fedora Project. In addition to planning FUDCon Tempe in 2011 and helping to lead the Marketing and Cloud SIGs within Fedora, Robyn has been an integral part of many other Fedora events and endeavors. Most recently, she has held the role of Fedora Program Manager, helping to ensure that we all stay on schedule and helping the Fedora feature process stay on track. Please join with me in welcoming Robyn into her new role, and in giving her your help and support in her new role. I'll be working with Robyn over the next weeks and months to help her in the new role. -- Jared Smith Former Fedora Project Leader -- announce mailing list announce@lists.fedoraproject.org https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/announce
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Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 7, 2012 22:26 UTC (Tue) by kragilkragil2 (guest, #76172) [Link]
Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 8, 2012 0:47 UTC (Wed) by mspevack (subscriber, #36977) [Link]
This includes Robyn, whose first work with Fedora was as a volunteer contributor to the Fedora Marketing team. She led all of the Fedora Marketing efforts for several releases of Fedora. Additionally, she helped to organize multiple FUDCons, and was the primary owner of FUDCon Tempe owner of the incredibly successful FUDCon Tempe in January 2011, all as a community member.
Eventually, Robyn was hired by Red Hat to be Fedora's Program Manager and Schedule Guru, and she has been part of the core Fedora leadership team ever since. She's a fantastic choice for Fedora Project Leader, and she shouldn't be penalized or excluded from that role simply because she *already* works at Red Hat.
Red Hat has proven its bona fides in hiring community members time and again, and continues to do so.
Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 8, 2012 4:41 UTC (Wed) by lxoliva (guest, #40702) [Link]
The response totally fails to answer the question: is it still a community distro if a company (rather than the community itself) gets to decide who its leader is?
Whether the appointed person is or is not a company associate is not even relevant. The question AFAICT is about who/what gets to appoint the leader, and how.
Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 8, 2012 15:00 UTC (Wed) by rfontana (subscriber, #52677) [Link]
Surely no one would claim that non-democratic meritocratic or pseudomeritocratic leadership-emergence models represents "the community deciding" on leadership; that would be indulging in mythology in a rather disturbing way.
Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 8, 2012 18:32 UTC (Wed) by lxoliva (guest, #40702) [Link]
They are elected by Fedora community members, except for one (?) seat appointed by Red Hat. Well, I guess one could argue that since there's only one position of leader, this standard is already applied: Red Hat appoints one, and the remaining are elected. But although mathematically correct, this wouldn't be a very honest argument, now would it? :-)
Now, please note I'm not saying the leader must be elected democratically by the community for Fedora to be a community project. It is however a measure of how much control over the project Red Hat wishes to withhold from the community. Maybe it would avoid such undesirable comparisons with the democratically-elected project leaders in democratic community projects if the position had a different title, say “community hoarder for Red Hat”. That would be not only more accurate, but also leave room for the community to choose their own leaders, which any actual community *will* naturally do, regardless of whatever sponsors wish and whatever positions it controls under whatever title.
Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 8, 2012 18:51 UTC (Wed) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]
They are elected by Fedora community members, except for one (?) seat appointed by Red Hat."
That's not true.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board
"There are nine Board members: five elected by the community and four appointed by Red Hat. Volunteers and Red Hat employees are eligible for all seats, and often volunteers are appointed or Red Hat employees are elected."
I would say that, Red Hat can continue to appoint a leader if there is a real need to do so but the veto right is no longer necessary and should be removed but that argument needs more support from the community and not externally.
Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 8, 2012 19:27 UTC (Wed) by lxoliva (guest, #40702) [Link]
Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 8, 2012 14:44 UTC (Wed) by mmcgrath (guest, #44906) [Link]
I don't think it's fair to call Fedora a 100% community distro. On the Fedora Project's website it says in several locations that Fedora is sponsored by Red Hat.
I'd say Fedora is a partnership between Red Hat and the community. It works out well for both since Red Hat gets so many talented contributors from the community and the community doesn't have to bare the full cost of creating Fedora.
Even though much of Fedora's leadership is chosen from the community by the community, the actual "Leader" position is not.
Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 8, 2012 15:09 UTC (Wed) by rfontana (subscriber, #52677) [Link]
Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 11, 2012 13:59 UTC (Sat) by jospoortvliet (guest, #33164) [Link]
In any case, using the term 'sponsor' or not, Fedora is a community. Not a community-led distro like Debian, Gentoo or openSUSE, but neither is it a closed development thing like RHEL and SLE are. So THAT word, community distribution - fine.
Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 12, 2012 4:00 UTC (Sun) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]
Hold on. How is openSUSE community led while Fedora is not?
Jared Smith steps down as Fedora project leader
Posted Feb 9, 2012 8:27 UTC (Thu) by airlied (subscriber, #9104) [Link]