IrcCouncilSpec

Summary

The IRC team needs a well-defined governance structure that can make sure the channels are well-run, maintained and that they continue to be helpful and have a good atmosphere.

Rationale

Currently Dennis Kaarsemaker (Seveas) is the only official contact between Freenode and Ubuntu, and thus de facto 'leader' of the IRC ops team with no real further governance structure. This is a bad situation for a variety of reasons:

  • Things are getting blocked on the availability of a single person
  • Dennis was never chosen as a leader, but evolved to leader over time
  • The lack of proper, blessed procedures has caused problems
  • The community grows fast and one person doesn't scale too well

Therefore we'd like the IRC council to be recognized as contact point between the Ubuntu community on IRC, the freenode network staff and the community council. This would help improving the Ubuntu community on IRC.

What would change? As little as possible. The IRC team are doing a good job now and the IRC council is not mant to increase bureacracy, but to give guidance and structure and to make sure that as a team we scale up to the ever growing Ubuntu community.

The council will consist of Sarah Hobbs, Marek Spruell and Lorenzo J. Luccini. These people have been chosen by the current operator team. Dennis Kaarsemaker expressed the intention to step down, but has been asked to stay on the council in an advisory role.

Scope

Currently, the IRC Team covers the following channels:

  • #ubuntu
  • #ubuntu+1
  • #ubuntu-offtopic
  • #kubuntu
  • #kubuntu-offtopic
  • #xubuntu
  • #xubuntu-offtopic
  • #ubuntu-meeting
  • #ubuntu-bots
  • #ubuntu-ops
  • #ubuntu-effects

The tasks of the IRC council would be the following

  • Approving operators
  • Approving cloaks
  • Maintaining the channel
  • Maintaining a relationship with freenode
  • Role in the AppealProcess

Design

Election process

The members of the IRC council should not be selected by the public at large, but a system similar to the forums council or a vote among operators might be a good idea.

Appointing ops / Managing channels

We should disrupt as little as possible. The IRC council would be responsible for approving operators for the main channels. Usually a person who is approved by the council, is approved because of a good contribution to a particular channel or a limited set of channels.

If an approved operator wants to help in another channel, the contact of that channel can then more easily decide whether or not to give this person access after seeing whether he is in the ubuntu-irc "approved operators" team. Thus turning the ops team in a ready-to-use pool of good people for operator access.

Implementation

  1. Review AppealProcess

  2. Vote on Council members.
  3. Request acknowledgment by the Community Council.

Outstanding Issues

Creating the first 'implementation' of the council: choosing the council members and a confirmation by the community council

BoF agenda and discussion

MikeBasinger: Will three council people be enough? You not be able to get a majority vote if one person is unable to attend a meeting.


CategorySpec

IrcTeam/IrcCouncilSpec (last edited 2008-08-06 16:37:10 by localhost)