LoCo Teams
Spec: https://features.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/loco-teams
Discussed: 6th and 7th Nov 2006
Summary
Ever since the beginning of the Ubuntu project, LoCo teams have played a key role, but the huge growth of the project and the LoCo community has caused some scalability issues. This has resulted in the following issues:
- Conflict resolution not documented well or defined - the conflict resolution process needs better documenting. Right now many issues are taken straight to Jono Bacon or the CC then they could be resolved before. This needs general conflict resolution guidance as well as a documented escalation process.
- Resources hogging too much contributor time - far too many new teams are spending most of their time setting up resources instead of building relationships and engaging in team building.
- Some teams are struggling getting going and although they have the desire to contribute and put the time in, are unsure of exactly how to do so.
Use Cases
Mike eager to participate in advocating Ubuntu joins his states LoCo. He posts messages on the LoCo's Forum and sends out an Email on the mailing list. The only responses he gets are from other "confused" LoCo members who hear from the teams senior members very rarely. Most of them say the team has been in a lull and no one has taken any initiative to get the LoCo active again in quite some time. A couple of members express to Mike their interest in wanting to participate in some Ubuntu advocacy. Mike decides he wants to start providing some direction for the Team. He is having trouble accessing the LoCo's tools (Wiki, Mailing List, Launchpad, Forum) because the current stewards of the passwords are very frequently unavailable and do not readily offer to relinquish the passwords to just anyone who asks for them. Without any ByLaws he is uncertain what actions to take in order to get the LoCo reorganized. He wants to insure a level of professionalism and prevent any kind of action that might create a schism. A certain amount of accountability not being part of the status quo makes it difficult for everyone involved to know exactly what to expect and what is expected.
Implementation
Firstly, there have been some policy decisions with the LoCo project:
- Hosting only provided for approved teams - we need to encourage teams to stop spending time building resources and instead spend time building teams. We have a core set of resource requirements - mailing list, IRC etc, and the team should instead build a web presence on the Ubuntu wiki. This encourages contribution and gets people working together.
- Leaders of teams will need to stick to the new Leadership CoC which is currently under review.
To improve and scale the LoCo project, we need to follow through with the following action points, much of which involves the documentation of common processes:
- Make clearer the position of loco-contacts as a source for best practice.
- Loco Mentoring (this is a separate spec). This will assist teams that are unsure of how to build a team in following a set path to build a solid team infrastructure.
- Document conflict resolution procedures. Right now conflict resolution largely involves.initial assistance from Jono Bacon, but the escalation process should be defined.
- Finalise the Leadership CoC - this is mostly complete and under review, but it should be put in front of the CC as soon as possible.
- Document leadership models and leadership best practices. Importantly, this should be easy to read - we need to make sure that we have a source of leadership best-practice documentation that is concise and easy to implement.
- Document the pre-screening process in which teams submit their approval application three days before the CC meeting to loco-contacts.
Aside from these specific action points, the following general aims will also be pursued:
- Continue to revise and improve the documentation. Assigning tasks to interested contributors will help here.