[yt-dev] let's talk about Governance

Sat Aug 16 19:08:16 PDT 2014

+1, absolutely.  Right now, yt has a really high bus factor.  I think this
would help that a lot.

On Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 7:40 PM, Chris Malone <chris.m.malone at gmail.com>
wrote:

> +1 as well on all suggestions
>
> > On Aug 15, 2014, at 5:32 PM, Kenza Arraki <karraki at nmsu.edu> wrote:
> >
> > I wanted to put my strong +1 out there even though I don't respond
> > often to dev emails. This sounds like a great direction for yt!
> >
> > -Kenza
> >
> > ---
> > Kenza Arraki
> > PhD candidate
> > New Mexico State University
> > Department of Astronomy
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 4:06 PM, Michael Zingale
> > <michael.zingale at stonybrook.edu> wrote:
> >> these all sound like good ideas to me.  Some simply operating
> procedures,
> >> like "don't merge your own pull requests" might be good too.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 3:50 PM, Britton Smith <brittonsmith at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> I'm very in favor of putting some official procedures into a YTEP.
> Having
> >>> a codified process may also help with conflict resolution as well.
> >>>
> >>> Apache does something with their projects where developers who make
> >>> sustained contribution are made "members" after nomination by another
> member
> >>> and are given write access to the main repo.  It's a small thing, but
> if we
> >>> perhaps have an official definition of "yt member" in a YTEP with a
> posted
> >>> list of members, it can be something people can point to as a way of
> >>> demonstrating that they've done significant work on the project.
> >>>
> >>> I think it might also be good to have officer-like positions where
> people
> >>> are representatives for various areas of the code, such as data
> structures,
> >>> visualization, analysis_modules, etc. and to have semi-regular meeting
> of
> >>> these people.  This may be as much leadership as we need for now, just
> a
> >>> group that meets on a schedule to make sure everyone's on the same
> page with
> >>> releases and major development efforts.
> >>>
> >>> What do people think of something like this?
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 4:58 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk at gmail.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Hi Britton,
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks for bringing this up -- it's a tough topic, but also I think
> >>>> really important.  At the WSSSPE conference last year, a paper was
> >>>> submitted talking about the Apache model:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> http://figshare.com/articles/Sustainable_Cyberinfrastructure_Software_Through_Open_Governance/790761
> >>>>
> >>>> which talks about a lot of related topics.  Apache does some
> >>>> interesting things.  They use the word "meritocracy" which I am rather
> >>>> -1 on using (see, for instance,
> >>>>
> >>>>
> http://www.ashedryden.com/blog/the-ethics-of-unpaid-labor-and-the-oss-community
> >>>> ) but I do think there is something to be said for a large part of
> >>>> their methods of organization.
> >>>>
> >>>> Like you, I think we are overdue.  I would like to point out that, for
> >>>> all intents and purposes, you are *already* the ombudsman for the yt
> >>>> community.  I don't think you're proposing we have a committee that
> >>>> bosses everyone around, but rather one that enables a larger number of
> >>>> people to have a say, particularly because yt has become embedded in
> >>>> many of our scientific workflows and it touches a lot of research
> >>>> activities now.  I like the idea of members.  I like the idea of a
> >>>> project management committee, but it's not clear to me how that would
> >>>> work, or which decisions we have made recently that they would weigh
> >>>> in on.  I also really like the idea of having "code liasons" to
> >>>> different data platforms and/or communities, and the idea of having
> >>>> people who are responsible for many different areas of the code and
> >>>> codifying that in some way is quite attractive to me.
> >>>>
> >>>> For what it's worth, a few weeks ago I gave a presentation on my
> >>>> "vision" for the future of yt (http://goo.gl/JKt6MA).  The thing is,
> >>>> while I gave this presentation, it's just *my* vision -- it is not
> >>>> necessarily anyone else's vision.  And I think it's time we have some
> >>>> method of taking into account a diverse set of opinions for what we as
> >>>> a community can emphasize, how we resolve conflicts, and so on and so
> >>>> forth.
> >>>>
> >>>> Again, thanks for bringing this up.  We need to have this
> conversation.
> >>>>
> >>>> -Matt
> >>>>
> >>>> On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 4:11 PM, Britton Smith <
> brittonsmith at gmail.com>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>> Greeting yt developers,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> First, I want to congratulate everyone here on the successful release
> >>>>> of yt-3.0.  This was a massive effort on the part of so many and a
> >>>>> true testament to the strength of this team.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> At the time of writing this, there are 78 members of the yt-dev
> >>>>> mailing list.  As someone who does most of their work in very small
> >>>>> collaborations, this amazes me and make me very proud.  In case
> you're
> >>>>> wondering, the yt-users list has 268 members.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> As a project, yt has a significant amount of infrastructure: code
> >>>>> review with pull requests, issue tracking, automated testing, emails
> >>>>> lists, an IRC channel, enhancement proposals, workshops.  All of this
> >>>>> is evidence of our legitimacy as a Real Thing.  However, one big
> >>>>> missing piece is a system of governance.  I don't know exactly what
> >>>>> this means, but I have some ideas, which I will share below.  What I
> >>>>> want to do right now is to start a discussion that will, hopefully,
> >>>>> include as many people as possible on this list.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> For me, governance means (roughly) the following:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> - a set of procedures in writing for how various things are to be
> >>>>>  done, such as acceptance of pull requests, releases, designating
> >>>>>  developers as core contributors, etc.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> - a governing body to make decisions and help guide the project.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> This accomplishes a number of things, which as a project I think we
> >>>>> need, such as:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> - overall stability of the project.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> - providing a system for conflict resolution.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> - maintaining the spirit of yt as a team effort.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> - providing a way for active contributors to get credit for their
> >>>>>  contribution in the form of official recognition.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> So, these are my initial thoughts, but I really think this deserves a
> >>>>> thorough discussion with as many people participating as possible.
> >>>>> Please, think about what governance means to you, whether we need it,
> >>>>> what it should be, and what we might get out of it, and share your
> >>>>> thoughts over the next few days.  I look forward to this discussion.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Britton
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>> yt-dev mailing list
> >>>>> yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
> >>>>> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> yt-dev mailing list
> >>>> yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
> >>>> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> yt-dev mailing list
> >>> yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
> >>> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Michael Zingale
> >> Associate Professor
> >>
> >> Dept. of Physics & Astronomy • Stony Brook University • Stony Brook, NY
> >> 11794-3800
> >> phone:  631-632-8225
> >> e-mail: Michael.Zingale at stonybrook.edu
> >> web: http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/mzingale
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> yt-dev mailing list
> >> yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
> >> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
> > _______________________________________________
> > yt-dev mailing list
> > yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
> > http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
> _______________________________________________
> yt-dev mailing list
> yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.spacepope.org/pipermail/yt-dev-spacepope.org/attachments/20140816/04d4bc00/attachment.htm>