Re: Focus

[Mohammed Elzubeir <elzubeir at arabeyes dot org>]

On Wed, 2004-03-31 at 04:03, Nadim Shaikli wrote:

>
> [..]
>

I'm snipping off the stuff that we simply agree on. Looks like this is
turning out to be a can of worms. I would have to admit that despite the
cons of it starting to sound like a civil war, I think it is great that
the discussion has made it to the general list.

> Sure - that's why all our meetings and correspondence is publicly available.
> As you might have noticed, not many really care too much about Arabeyes
> internals as long as they get done and that's where we are supposed to
> step-in (to cater to those volunteers and to foster the project and its
> growth).  Mind you also that we are 95+% of the time in agreement on things,
> so we are not a dysfunctional group per se, we simply need to be more

I don't think we are dysfunctional, but sometimes seem non-functional ;)
I think the round robin system for the meeting minutes/agendas has
proven that as you have pointed out in an irc conversation.

>
> [..]
>
> I'm not a fan of naming names unless people probe me (we are all
> adults here and I think we all know if we are doing enough or not).
> 

Well, as long as I'm the one naming myself I'm okay with it ;) No
seriously though, sometimes explicitly stating what should be obvious
helps clear the picture.

> In general I'd like to add (a bit more detail),
> 
>  - Taking ownership of things assigned to one so that the issue doesn't
>    lapse and become an issue again (ie. track your todos any which way
>    you like, but get them done and finish-up the task)
> 
>  - Speedier attention/replies to outside contact is needed
> 
>  - Speedier attention to project hosting is needed
> 
>  - A bit more involvement in a timely manner on the mailing-lists esp.
>    when general Arabeyes issues are involved (means lists need to be
>    inspected and read at least every 2-3 days).

I'm not so sure about this. I mean, hey, there a lot of people on the
lists. For example, I always reply to something that is directed toward
me or something that is relevant to what I am doing. Relevance is the
key here. I can't (and don't expect others here) to respond to every
other email that goes unanswered. It is the nature of mailing-lists.
Sometimes you send out an email and no one is interested in responding
to it.

An example of this, I don't read emails related to the Quran project. I
am simply not interested in the whole project and don't see why I should
be. There are those who are and they keep this subject alive because it
interests them. I am sure everyone has their interests and inclinations.

>  - Overall more involvement and less delays on our TODOs (how about
>    if a person can only delay his todo twice else he gets eaten by
>    parana's :-)
> 

This is a little tricky. I am all for it, but how would you recommend
implementing an '.. or else..' ? Yelling and screaming alone is enough?
Also, what kind of TODO's have acceptable delays and what others don't?
I would not want people to eat me alive because I'm delaying Duali's
release, but if my TODO has something like, Fix the CVS HOWTO (just
giving a recent example of your request), then yes, that's something
that should not a two-time delay.

>  - Get back to having fun while doing all this.
>
> BTW: thanks Mohammed for your clear, direct tone and balanced approach
>      as well as focus on the issues.

We aim to please ,-)

Regards,
Mohammed Elzubeir