[yocto] RFC: Joint, monthly, and online forum for developer discussion

[Jack Mitchell]

On 10/01/12 22:16, Joshua Lock wrote:
> Hi Sean,
>
> On 09/01/12 17:49, Hudson, Sean wrote:
>> I propose having a monthly, online developer forum that promotes
>> discussion on longer term technical issues that impact both Yocto and
>> OpenEmbedded. This would supplement the already existing mailing list
>> and irc communication channels. In order to facilitate this, I’d like to
>> propose a telephone/web conference, which my employer has agreed to 
>> host.
>> This forum would help provide an additional way for the community to
>> discuss technical issues and share information about planned work and
>> works in progress.
>
> I really like the intent here, a lot of people don't like IRC/mailing 
> lists and I'd like to enable as many people as possible to participate 
> in the project.
I agree, in general, the more community/group discussion that goes on 
the better the resulting effort will be.
>
> Two things worry me about a telephone/web conference:
> 1) Our projects have participants spread across many time-zones and it 
> will be difficult to accommodate more than one or two of those in any 
> such real-time discussion.
> 2) In my experience as the number of participants in a call increases 
> the ability for individuals to comment decreases. Generally I find 
> calls with more than half a dozen or so participants difficult to 
> participate in. I suspect I'm not alone.
If the call was streamed live, there could be people listening and 
noting ideas which could then be brought up on the mailing list - with 
which to iron out the creases and bring up at the next conference, 
rather than immediately on a whim? Therefore with an agenda beforehand 
only people who have very strong feelings or a lot to say on the subject 
would join, everybody else could listen in and pipe up on IRC or the 
mailing list if they feel the need to vent.

A chair-person or someone else could also be a representative of IRC and 
if people have short, constructive input this could be relayed? Again, 
bringing the number of people in the call down.
> Additionally, with respect to 1), I worry about how we might enable 
> folks unable to attend to, if not participate in the discussion, at 
> least be aware of what was discussed.
Would it be possible to record the conference and make it publicly 
available, this could solve the technical minutes issue and also allow 
people who cannot attend to hear first hand what has been said.
>
> I'm not sure that minutes would be sufficient for more technical topics.
^^
>
> With that said I do think such conversations are important and would 
> be happy to join in. I simply want to raise my concerns early and see 
> if anyone has ideas which might help here.
>
>> Initial Topics for Discussion might include:
>>
>>  1. layering definitions – discussion on what exists today and how to
>>     make it better
>>  2. discussions on techniques to make working with oe/yocto better
>>  3. oe/yocto disconnects (opportunities for better alignment)
>>  4. common new user issues
>>  5. documentation (standards, lacks, etc)
>>  6. ?
>
> I think this is a great set of topics, and very worthy of discussion. 
> I'd certainly like to be involved in 2,3&4.
>
> Cheers,
> Joshua

Just my 2p.

Best Regards,
Jack.