User:Poelstra/Importance of strategy

Background
This page came out of the Strategic Working Group meeting on 2010-01-25

Ideas

 * BRAINSTORMING: not to be taken as set policy
 * Background: lay out reaons why the Board (and this workgroup) are pursuing these issues and the benefits that will result to Fedora from doing so
 * Colin: The board work doesn't necessarily have to be negative or create restrictions on groups inside Fedora; instead one could think of it as finding commonality and providing a framework.
 * Paul: Perception of Fedora carrying the torch of free software needs to strongly match the reality
 * Contributors fully recognized for their work and progress in the free software community
 * We want Fedora to be successful, understood by more people, and we want it to prosper. This happens by:
 * Attracting more contributors
 * Making sure we are putting effort into the right areas--cannot attack everything equally
 * Work hard to collectively/collaboratively solve these problems
 * Making sure support and resources are going to the key areas that help us blaze a trail forward
 * Continuing to implicitly allow and encourage groups and personal initiatives that fall outside of the key areas, provided that they do not impede progress in the key areas
 * John: We want to be clear about why we are creating the default spin and who it is for so that we can measure our success or failure
 * This helps to build sustainable, achievable release processes because we have a clear sense of what must work and for whom
 * Mike: We need to have current goals for why we exist and what our purpose is so that outside and inside people have a sense where Fedora is going and what its direction is
 * John: this gives them something to grab onto and belong to vs. people showing up to a massive sand box with lot of people doing their own thing where it is unclear where to get involved, what is most important, what the critical mass of people is working on.

Paul's Distillation?

 * http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=2974

To advance free software, we need to provide a well thought out integration of free software without corner-cutting. A positive user experience when using, and after installing, a product is our best possible advertisement in the absence of a bottomless wallet for marketing. To provide that experience, and be able to evaluate our success at doing so, we must focus our finite resources on a limited target that also captures the basic needs of the largest majority of our contributors. At the same time, it is incumbent upon us to provide opportunities for exploration to all contributors within the framework of our core values and without impeding progress. (This is just my attempt to distill. Editing appreciated. --pfrields 01:54, 28 January 2010 (UTC))

2010-02-01

 * Further refinement through discussion with Paul, Colin, John, and Mike
 * Question: "Why is the Fedora the Board (and this workgroup) are pursuing these strategic issues and the benefits that will result to Fedora from investing time in them?"
 * Answer:
 * To advance free software, we need to provide a sustainable integration of free software without cutting corners.
 * By providing a positive first impression during installation and real use, we support Fedora's reputation as a leading and reliable product that attracts future users and contributors.
 * To provide that integration and experience we must and be clear about areas that we emphasize.
 * In order to be successful we need to be able to measure success or failure of these emphasized areas and respond accordingly.
 * what areas do we emphasize? Do we need to say?
 * No matter who I am and what I want to contribute to, I can't demand that other people work on that thing. If I am pursuing a different direction, I have the opportunity and the responsibility to attract people to help.
 * While narrowing our focus in some areas, though, we must provide opportunities for exploration to all contributors within the framework of our   core values and without impeding progress.

rewrite
To advance free software, we need to provide a sustainable integration of free software without cutting corners. By providing a positive first impression before and during installation and real use, we support Fedora's reputation as a leading and reliable product that attracts future users and contributors. To provide that integration and experience we must have a clear set of priorities to help all contributors decide how to allocate resources and resolve conflicts. These priorities are not meant to be exclusive, or to keep contributors from working on the parts of Fedora that matter to them.

These priorities will sometimes expose gaps where contributors need additional assistance, and allow them to seek it both within the community and by bringing in additional contributors to help, exclusively on their particular interest area if desired. While narrowing our focus in some areas, though, we must provide opportunities for exploration to all contributors within the framework of our core values and without impeding progress.