Re: Focus

[Mohammed Elzubeir <elzubeir at arabeyes dot org>]

On Tue, 2004-03-30 at 00:50, Nadim Shaikli wrote:

> As I said, I guess I'm not making friends by wanting to resolve this
> issue and by continually bring-up the topic.  I simply think its a
> serious issue that needs addressing.
> 

Agreed.

> [..]
>
> 
> I beg to differ and differ with a wrapper and bow on it :-)  I don't think
> we are anywhere close to being on auto-pilot and think that is really where
> all our problems might be at.  We have to have a much more hands on role

That we are (I am) under the illusion that we are on auto-pilot? Maybe.

> to grow this operation and to continually refine it, dropping things mid-way
> (I don't want to site any examples here although there are many since it
> would simply distract from the true cause of all of this) is detrimental.
> 
> [..]
>
> Everything we talk about in our meetings (for the most part) is very much
> 'management' related (the minutes attest to that).  I'm not sure what you
> envision 'management' being and/or what it would entail, but we are managing
> the Arabeyes project.  As for talking about projects - I continue to think
> that if a project is dying it very much is a management issue and should be
> discussed in hopes of us coming up with a plan to salvage things (again,
> that is a 'management' role).  Out bread-n-butter are the projects, if
> we don't talk about 'em, I'm not sure we'd need meetings.
> 

What I am saying is, we spend time nit-picking on projects maintained by
'core' members only and do not pay any attention to non-core maintained
projects. We should either not do this, or review _all_ projects the
same way. Or are we of the opinion that only core-maintained projects
are of importance?

> This is the crux of the issue - we all have responsibilities with regards
> to Arabeyes and as such we all need to live up to them (ie. everyone has
> to carry their own weight).  We come hard on project maintainers for not
> doing what they are supposed to, shouldn't we first and foremost be that
> hard on ourselves ?
> 

I agree and could not argue that if I wanted to.

> Again, I'm trying to focus on the subject at hand and not get into various
> secondary topics or jabs (none of this is personal and none of it should

I'm not taking any of this personally -- but we have worked with each
other for quite some time (especially you and I go back to the very
beginning), so we do owe it to each other to know what's going on in our
personal lives (to an extent) to understand why there is a surge/slump
in activity.

> be).  I want to make sure we all start functioning in a manner that we
> can truly call ourselves Arabeyes managers and people that are looking
> out for the well-being of the project (not just sustaining its existence).

That's probably what I meant by being on auto-pilot (sustaining
existence).

> Growth is VERY high in my mind and I won't go there (as I have some ideas)

Oh-uh.. ;)

> until this topic is settled and agreed upon (the first step to a solution
> is admitting the existence of a problem).  If we are unable to take on
> and fulfill the responsibilities as 'core' then we should try to find
> another group of people more capable than us.  If there are questions with

Heh.. Nadim, are you serious? Even with our lately sketchy performance,
I guarantee that we would not be able to find 'more' capable people to
take on the responsibilities of 'core'. This is simply a reality. There
are people I would love to see get onboard (we have discussed this in a
previous meeting I believe).. we can't even get a stable KDE coordinator
or .. oh don't get me started ;)

> regards to what 'core' does (if the past 3 years haven't made that clear
> enough), then let's ask the volunteers for their input and listen to their
> needs and thoughts.
> 

I am always for that option. Involving volunteers in core's decision
making process is very essential (whether we are in agreement on
something or not). 

Now, in order for this thread (re-re-rethread), we first have to
acknowledge the basics:

  - We are in trouble (core is not pulling its weight with some doing
much more work than others). Nadim and Youcef doing too much work
whereas Anmar and I are just slacking [yeah, I name names, we are only
4, we can be honest about it].
    This doesn't only leave the harder workers digruntled, but causes
them to completely let go when their energy and drive dies out when they
see they are the only ones pulling the cart. How long do we give the
slackers the benefit of the doubt (do you get more time for seniority?
<g>)?

  - Crucial projects are not being given enough attention (e.g. Arabbix,
KDE and Duali -- all need _immediate_ and _serious_ attention, which
they are getting none of).


Anything else?

Regards,
Mohammed Elzubeir