| [p2-dev] Sabbatical |
As the new year starts, I'm announcing that I'm taking a sabbatical from the p2 lead position starting now until at least September 2012. Short explanations Through a large part of 2011, my involvement in p2 has been solely done on my personal time. I simply no longer have the energy and motivation to contribute my personal time toward the project. I want to focus this precious time toward my family and learn new things. Of course should any big issue arises, I will be reachable to help, and I will continue to take on small consulting engagements like I did in the past. Long explanations There are several reasons for this decision that are pretty much all intertwined. Below is an attempt at giving a clear description of my situation. Let's start by some assertions: - As a lead of p2, I feel obliged to help the community by answering questions, triaging bugs, participating in evolution discussions, etc. - My day time job consists in defining a cool new product for Sonatype, and I spend most of my day in JIRA, meetings and emails. No code. - p2 is now a personal project. - I want to code and learn new things. Now come the explanation: - When I go back home at night I would like to do something fun on my personal time. However because of my role in p2, p2 is no longer something fun for me to do because it is a repeat of my paying job. Of course, I could ignore p2 conversations and just hack code but this is not good leadership. So instead I do something else and pretend I don't have the time… This has led to frustrated users and contributors. Reality is that I would have the time, jut not the desire. - Also my lack of involvement puts me in a weak spot when it comes to ask people to contribute to p2 since I don't contribute much myself. All in all I feel guilty for not meeting my responsibilities. By no longer leading, I will be able to do whatever I want without having the feeling of guilt nagging me. Now what? Even though p2 is mature, it still has plenty of untapped potential that could take the project beyond its current state. In the coming weeks I will work with Tom Watson to figure out if a co-lead is necessary and talk the potential candidates into it :) After the sabbatical? Once the sabbatical over, I will reexamine my position and see if I simply need to drop the co-leadership and move on, or become again more engaged in the project. Thanks for reading that far. Good year and good luck, Sincerely, PaScaL |