Re: Why Unanimous Consent Doesn't Work (Was: Re: why do we need change?)

[Sašo Kiselkov]

Alright, let's stop arguing (which doesn't lead anywhere) and starting holes in
the air, but let's instead start some heavy-weight brain-storming for ideas on
how to implement the problems at hand. From the dicussions before we already
know that:

 - GNUstep needs somewhat tighter management of it's further development

 - GNUstep needs to better react to proposals coming from it's users (meaning
"people using GNUstep", not just end-users)

My proposal for the first point is setting up some sort of "GNUstep Steering
Commitee" composed of a bunch of people which would choose the direction.
Perhaps 3, 4, or 5 people, the precise number doesn't matter. It should be
core-developers, people who have authority, knowledge and wisdom.

As for the second point, I propose setting up a discussion forum (something like
a phpBB or something simmilar) entitled like "GNUstep Future". In the forum
there could be sections like:

 --- sections about the core libraries ---
 - GNUstep-Make
 - GNUstep-Base
 - GNUstep-Gui
 - GNUstep-Back

 --- sections about GNUstep in a broader view ---
 - Development Tools
 - User Environments
(etc.)

(Perhaps a gnustep-future mailing list would also do the job, but mailing lists
have quite limited capacity for larger volume discussions and are not that well
manageable.)

Anyways, on this discussion people would have a direct way how to propose and
discuss new features. A forum moderator could direct the discussion so that it
doesn't turn into a flame war.

>From the discussion forum's most discussed topics, the steering commitee would
compile a list of top-level issues, something like a "roadmap" or a "wishlist"
and put it somewhere where people can see it well (a link from the main page or
the "Developers" page would be great). Developers interrested in extending
GNUstep can gather inspiration from this and start working. Maybe also setting
up a page like "Who's Doing What" would be good. Here people working on the hot
issues would be listed, so that there won't be several people working on the
same issue at the same time, or so that they could work together.

What do you think?

--
Saso