ForumsGovernance

Revision 53 as of 2006-11-08 13:24:38

Initial Notes

This a draft. Everything here is completely open for discussion and reevaluation. It is, as of the time of writing, the work of only two people and will only represent those views until you start on it. Additionally, this document can updated with time when it stops working. For example, if a 3-5 person board becomes problematic, we can change it. Changes to this can be made by agreement of both the FC and the CC.

Finally, it should go without saying but may still benefit from being said:

This document is not meant as an attack on the current forums staff or administrators.

The forums are one of the largest and smoothest running parts of the Ubuntu community. This document aims to help create a more documented, democratic, accessible governance structure for the forums and to integrate it into the rest of the Ubuntu community.
The best way to solve a problem is to prevent it from ever happening. At a moment when the forums are running more smoothly than ever, it seems an ideal moment to help pave the road for a long and smooth future.

Forums Community Governance Codification

The forums represent many people's first meeting with Ubuntu and is an important resource for support and social interactions and have become one of the most important subprojects within Ubuntu. They are the single largest GNU/Linux support forums and one of the most important venues for community support and interaction. Started independently by "Ryan Troy two years ago, their rapid success was officially recognized when they were designated as the Official Ubuntu Forums.

In a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons, the forums have not been given the recognition that they deserve. Their governance systems remain both separate and isolated from the Ubuntu decision-making systems. While the forums have built successful and effective internal governance systems, including their resolution center, their relationship to the rest of the Ubuntu is less clear. The forums currently have no CC-delegated governance council and no official team delegation.

In short, the Official Ubuntu Forums have not been given an opportunity to live up to their name. This specification, which ultimately aims to be approved by both the current forum staff and the Ubuntu Community Council, tries to lay out a plan for bringing the Ubuntu forums into the fold.

A closer relationship between Ubuntu and the forums will:

Increase recognition of contributions in the forums with membership which is ultimately used to approve community council members.
Provide a clear delegation and codifications of the existing leadership in the forums and plan for handling these decisions in the future.
Describe clear democratic and meritocratic processes for the appointment of leadership and staff positions in the forums.
Remove several "single points of failure". (this is not an attack on the people who currently fill those roles, but a recognition that single points of failure are problematic)
Describe methods for both preventing and resolving any future inter-administrator or inter-staff conflicts within the forums.
Recognize the hard work of the forums staff through recognition as an integral and *integrated* part of the forums community.
Provide a straightforward process for top forums contributors to be recognized as full members in Ubuntu, with the right to vote on resolutions posed by the Community Council.
Provide for a reporting process so that news, ideas and work done in the project by Forums users will be communicated to the broader community and appropriately recognized.

Changes to Current Ubuntu Policy

The proposal includes both new policy and the codification of a few existing Ubuntu policies. These should be discussed with the CC and the forum staff. After it has been approved by the CC we will add it to the community governance page (http://www.ubuntu.com/community/processes/governance) in the Ubuntu website.

Note that the document is structured to describe NOT JUST the Forums, but instead all the areas of the project which are large and independent enough to have their own dedicated leadership structures.

Team Councils

Whereas small teams are governed by consensus and frequently directed by a team leader appointed by the Community Council, several projects within Ubuntu (e.g., Kubuntu, Edubuntu, the Ubuntu Forums) are large and established enough that they have their own internal governance structures. These most important of these structures is the Team Council.

The members of team councils are appointed by the community council under consideration of input from the existing team council and leaders and participants of the subproject or team. In all cases, the CC aims to choose leaders who are well known, experienced, and respected within team and in the larger community. The input of the current team leadership and members play the single most important role in appointing team council members.

Councils play different roles in different sub-projects but they act as an extension of and serve a role similar to the CC within their subproject. They create and review rules and guidelines and resolve conflicts or enforce rules where necessary. In some situations, consideration of membership applications is delegated to team councils by the community council. Like all teams in Ubuntu, their technical and non-technical decisions are subject to review or appeal to the Ubuntu Technical Board and Community Council respectively. Conflicts within team councils are resolved by the Community Council.

This would attempt to describe both what we're planning on doing here and would apply to the current Kubuntu and Edubuntu councils.

New Forums Governance Policy

The following new policy will be implemented after drafting and approval by the current forums administrators an the Ubuntu community council.

It should also be added to the forums guidelines page (http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php?page=policy).

Forums Council

The forums council is the group that is ultimately responsible for the governing the forums and interfacing between the forums and the rest of the Ubuntu community and governce systems. It will:

Consist of between 3-7 members. Membership should be public and published. If council membership falls below 3 members, the board will be considered inquorate and new appointments will be made immediately. The number of members at any given point will be determined by the forums council.
Decisions will be made by a majority of voting forums council members when at least three and more than half of the total members have voted.
FC members should be accessible by and responsive to the forums community (i.e., through a dedicated forum).
Hold "meetings" regularly and visibly. Meetings can either be in IRC in the "ubuntu-meeting" channel or in a special, publicly visible area or sub-forum.
Be appointed by the Ubuntu Community Council in consultation with the Forums Council, forums staff, and active contributors to the forums. Nominations would be open and public and would be considered and evaluated by the CC. Each candidate should prepare a wiki page summarizing their nomination and their contributions and including and referencing testimonials (e.g., something similar to what is prepared for Ubuntu membership). The CC commits to evaluating all nominations on the following criteria, listed in order of importance:
- - The nominees active status as an Ubuntu member (essential).
  - The nominees support from at least one active forum staff member (essential). - Opinions and testimonials (positive and negative) from current members of the forums council; - Opinions and testimonials from current forums staff; - Opinions and testimonials from Ubuntu Members, Ubunteros, and other active participants in the forums; - Clear evidence of activity within the forums (quality, quantity and duration);
Serve terms of two (2) years. FC members could serve multiple or repeated terms. Weight will be given to proved contributors and reelection of consistently active members should be both easy and common.
Be formed, initially, of the current forums administrators (i.e., Ryan Troy, John Dong, and Mike Braniff).

The FC would have a number of rights and responsibilities. These include:

Appointing or recalling administrators moderators and forums staff. The criteria for these appointments are ultimately up to the FC.
Resolving disputes between forums staff and moderators as per the existing dispute resolution system and forums guidelines.
With advice, feedback, and help from the forums staff, maintaining and enforcing the Forums Guidelines and associated infrastructure (e.g., the resolution center).
Regularly and when possible, sending a representative to CC members to weigh in on issues of membership and to update the council on the FC business.
With time and once things are running smoothly, the CC will delegate membership decisions to the council so that the FC can appoint new Ubuntu members without direct oversight or permission from the CC.

Forums Staff and Ubuntu Membership

Forums staff will be appointed by the forums council. Forums staff are expected to uphold and set an example that is consistent with the Code of Conduct.

Forums staff and participants have the option to become Ubuntu members. Current staff can apply for membership at an Ubuntu CC meeting. Their contributions as staff members and contributors on the forums should provide more than sufficient evidence of a sustained and significant contribution to the Ubuntu community.

Dispute Resolution

There need to be no significant changes to the way that inter-user or staff-user disputes are handled in the forums. The FC will continue to maintain the forums guidelines and the resolution center.

There should be a method whereby any disagreements or conflicts *between* moderators can request a hearing by the FC.

In extreme situations only, users and moderators who feel that they have not been given a fair hearing by the FC can appeal a decision to the CC. The CC considers the FC to be a greater authority on forums matters and in the majority of these cases, the CC will likely refer these issues back to the FC.

Any deadlock within the FC will can be referred to the community council for resolution.

All forums issues, including those that involve the CC, should occur not in IRC, but in a special, public forum in the Ubuntu Forums.

Commentary on Changes

We've expanded the number of council members from a maximum of five to seven. We've made the number of members wholly up to the FC itself as long as it over three. FC members no longer need to be administrators.
There are no term limits for staff members or administrators.
There are no explicit term limits for FC members. Term lenghts were adjusted to two years from three.
The FC council will be able to delegate membership. As a result, it's essential that the FC members be Ubuntu members. Initial FC members who are not Ubuntu members should seek membership at the next CC meeting.
Forums staff or administrators need not be Ubuntu members. If they choose to pursue membership,they will be able to become Ubuntu Members easily.
The selection model has been rewritten to (a) require Ubuntu membership (b) explicitly committ the CC to following the criteria listed below and (c) require a nomination from at least one current staff member.

Response

The group meeting at UDS-MTV thank all of the contributors who have taken time to leave comments on the wiki page. Changes were made above that tried to reply to these changes. Additionally, this group has written the following comments to try and respond to remaining concerns that are not directly addressed in the text of the changes above.

A number of people left comments about control over the forums. The control in the current proposal will be almost entirely unchanged. The dispute resolution process described here is identical to the procedure followed today. Similarly, administrators and staff will be appointed in a method identical to the way things work now. This document pertains only to the relationship between Ubuntu and the forums and will not effect internal forums procedures. As a the document says in the introduction, the current forums are not broken and this is an attempt to prevent problems that have occurred in the past and to ensure that the forums are fully empowered like other teams councils.

Several people have raised concerns about the CC's ability to meaningfully appoint forum council members when the CC members are not particularly involved in the day-to-day actions of the forums. It should be pointed out that the CC is not involved in the day-to-day actions of many other consuils.

Comments

Comments by Ryan "Appointing or recalling administrators moderators and forums staff. The criteria for these appointments are ultimately up to the FC."

This is unacceptable. We current have a open selection process of choosing staff between all staff members. I WILL NOT agree to what is mentioned here.
There also needs to be a criteria about past staff, if they have been relieved of their duties they are not eligible for a FC position.

The FC are only there to serve a purpose of dispute resolution nothing more.

I stand very firm on these items.

Also, this is the summary I posted to our staff. And is what I took from the meeting.

Well the call/meeting went better then I had thought it would. I think we have a good plan in place and a draft is being written now. The summarization is:

No terms for staff/Admins
3 Year terms for FC
FC will be seperate from Admins, but could be consist of admins/staff
There will be 5 seats on the FC
Intiially setup with the 3 current admins and two others
FC canidates will have to me a certain criteria in order to apply
FC will suggest and pass the canidates to the CC for election.
FC will perform the following duties: 1. Elect ubuntu members 2. Resolve issues that are not resolved in the resolution center, if the issue is not resolved by the FC it will be pass to the CC. 3. Resolve inter-staff issues, if the person in question holds a seat on the FC they do not get to have a suggestion.
FC members should attend CC meetins to see how the election process for ubuntu members is done
FC should submit a monthly report the CC, this is something all councils are going to be required todo.

I think that pretty much sums it up. A large change but not one that blows the ship out of the water.

Comments by matthew

In addition to the objections mentioned above by Ryan, I would like to point out a couple of things that, while less important, are still in need of adjustment...

Hold "meetings" regularly and visibly. Meetings can either be in IRC in the "ubuntu-meeting" channel or in a special, publicly visible area or sub-forum.

--this still makes no sense. Regular meetings about what? Progress reports? This would just be a waste of time. "Well, guys, here we are. Glad you took an hour out of your work/play/life for this meeting. Anyone have any new business? Old business? No? Nothing?!" I have an image of the teacher calling out, "Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?" with no response. The forums leadership are already extremely accessible and can/do deal with things in a prompt manner without making people wait until "the next meeting." I suggest we not load down the FC with unnecessary and meaningless work.

"Several people have raised concerns about the CC's ability to meaningfully appoint forum council members when the CC members are not particularly involved in the day-to-day actions of the forums. It should be pointed out that the CC is not involved in the day-to-day actions of many other consuils." --Which leads me to believe it probably shouldn't have a say in the choosing of the leaders in those contexts either and shouldn't get involved unless there is a Code of Conduct violation or major dispute within those councils. Really, let the parts of the community govern themselves in a good manner, let them choose their own leadership, and if they can't do that without violating the Code of Conduct then tell them they can't be an official Ubuntu project...that really is all the authority you need to wield, anything more becomes (or at least appears to be) a power grab.