It appears that we find ourselves in a situation where misunderstandings have created a tangled mess.
Please allow me to clarify a few things...
Prior to Skalpa’s departure from XOOPS, there were 5 members of the Management structure of XOOPS.
Skalpa (Core Development/Project Management)
Rowd (Core Development/WWW site manager)
Ana (Addons/Demo site manager)
Herko (Foundation Chairman/XOOPS Project Treasurer)
JMorris (Community site manager/Server Administrator)
With Skalpa and Rowd’s departure, that left 3 members of the old management structure still in place; Ana, Herko, and me.
Skalpa granted me administrator access to SF.net in order to take the role of Project Manager. My first task was to secure a new Lead Core Developer.
I then approached DJ and asked him to assume the role of Lead Core Developer and stated that after the XOOPS Project was restructured, that I would pass the Project Manager position onto him.
The reason for this is, by nature, the Project Manager oversees the direction of the project. In an OSS Project, the Project Manager should be the Lead Developer; however, in this transient period, the Project Manager role was left to me.
After Ana stepped down from her position, the proper management structure prior to DJ's council nominations was as follows:
JMorris (Project Manager)
Phppp (Core Development)
Herko (Foundation Chairman)
When DJ nominated Tom and me for the XOOPS Council and there were no objections within a reasonable time period, this effectively added Tom to the management structure of XOOPS. Therefore, the current management structure of XOOPS is as follows:
JMorris (Project Manager)
Phppp (Core Development)
Herko (Foundation Chairman)
Tom (Marketing and Communications)
Now, this is where the confusion seems to be. Since this was not publicly announced, the validity of this claim is questioned. However, if you look at
SF.net, you will see that DJ and I are co-Project Admins. A current project admin (Skalpa) had to give me that position. I could not assume it on my own.
We are in a transitional period where we are moving from most things being done behind closed doors to having most things in the open. No, it was not publicly announced that I was the new Project Manager. IMHO, there were more important things to handle, like assigning a new Lead Core Dev and doing damage control. Since my role of Project Manager is temporary, I saw no need to announce it. I now see that as a mistake as that was a major contributing factor to the confusion at hand.
DJ recently started many initiatives within the community that are much along the lines of what was originally intended for the restructuring. However, the pace an approach of these initiatives is not what was originally planned and should have been discussed prior to announcement.
So, what was the original plan?
The original plan was to untangle the tangled mess XOOPS is right now and to put its different components in their proper place. Specifically speaking…
XOOPS Foundation – Non-profit organization that acts as financial and legal support structure for the XOOPS Project and community. The XOOPS Foundation does not govern the day to day operations of the XOOPS Project or community. The XOOPS Foundation is to be operated autonomously by volunteers from both the XOOPS Project and community.
XOOPS Project – The Core Development Team and Documentation Team that oversees the development and documentation of the XOOPS Core Application. The only site that would be governed by the Project would be the Official Project Homepage (promotion only, no support forums) and Documentation site. The Project is to be run autonomously by the Lead Developers and Documenters who are selected by merit from the XOOPS Community. The XOOPS Project would have no say over how the community or Foundation is run.
XOOPS Community – Everything else. Community support forums, Local Support Forums, Module Development, Theme Development, Community Communication, etc… The XOOPS Community would have no say over the direction and operation of the XOOPS Foundation or Project and would be operated autonomously by volunteers from the community.
Now, let me clarify a point here. The community would have involvement in all 3 areas, but only through representatives who earn their position based on merit, not popular vote. The community would still have a voice in core development through the SF.net forums, bug trackers and feature request trackers. However, the community would not dictate how the Core Developers and Documenters worked.
By separating XOOPS in such a way, it would place in effect the proper infrastructure for Core Developers and Documenters to focus on the application they are responsible for and it would allow the Community to be self-governing and would enable a greater level of collaboration among the community than ever possible before.
That was the original plan. The management body that was to be built was only to be temporary. Once the restructuring was complete, the centralized management body would transition into an Advisory Council. Meaning that there would be representatives from each branch of XOOPS who would communicate the overall direction each branch was going, but NO global decision making would be done by this Advisory Council, ONLY communication to ensure that each branch understands what is going on with the others.
What has been started in the community since Skalpa’s departure is mostly inline with what was to be Community Teams. The only Official Teams were to be Core Development and Documentation.
Therefore, we are not too far off track from the original plans; however, if we do not clear up this confusion now and start working together, then a bigger mess than what we had before will be created, IMHO.
Now, that is the big picture and it has been announced publicly. I hope we can get past the confusion and move forward in a direction that is best for the XOOPS Project and Community as a whole.
DJ,
I would like to publicly apologize to you as it seems there has been a great deal of misunderstanding. I apologize for my harsh words in the Council forums and I hope that we can work together to get XOOPS going in the right direction.
Insanity can be defined as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
Stupidity is not a crime. Therefore, you are free to go.
