Re: GNOME now

["Jason D. Clinton" <me jasonclinton com>]

On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 9:10 AM, Seif Lotfy <seif lotfy com> wrote:

So many different point of views and ideas in the community that are
not well discussed. The first thing that pops up in my head is GNOME
OS. But then I am kinda lost. Maybe this is something we need to
discuss here on the mailing list.
Lets try to answer those 3 questions. What about one sentence per
question for a start?
I am avoiding a blog post since I am not sure its the best way to
reach most of our contributors.

Hi Seif,

Thank you for your passion for GNOME and for serving the free software community.

If there's anything that we've learned from decades of trying to discuss abstract ideas among free software engineers and marketing free software to outsiders, it's that blog posts and mailing list discussions are ineffective and sometimes even harmful.

I believe that you really do want an answer to your three questions so I would encourage you or anyone else who wants reach consensus to put out a call for interested parties, form a working group that meets once or twice face-to-face, and then publishes the meeting notes to this list.

Host the working group on VC and use something like Doodle to find a time.

This thread, like so many hundreds on this topic that came before, won't be conclusive. It can't--the people you need to participate won't and, in some cases, the people who you don't want to participate will.

The technology exists to have those face-to-face conversations that lead to personal relationships, a sense of community and actual authoritative decisions /without/ having to go to GNOME conferences twice a year. We can and should use something more effective than mailing lists as often (and as freely) as possible.