RE: [phoenix-dev] Home page RC2

["Nathan Gervais" <nathan.gervais@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bjorn,

 

You’re right on the money.  Since the first bug was opened in July, I believe that we have been very open about the whole redesign of the homepage.  And the feedback that we have received about the homepage has resulted in a better end product because of the community. 

 

Nathan Gervais

Web Developer

Eclipse Foundation

[http://www.eclipse.org]

 

---

From: phoenix-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:phoenix-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bjorn Freeman-Benson
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 5:53 AM
To: For developers on the new Eclipse.org website project.
Subject: Re: [phoenix-dev] Home page RC2

 

Nathan,
As the process guy for Eclipse, that annoying person in Portland who tries to make sure that the projects are open and public, this statement bothers me:

Just because we did not choose to show these iterations to the community as

whole does not mean that they were not completed.  

Eclipse projects *must* do design and implementation and conversations in public. On the dev lists and not behind closed doors. When projects have face-to-face meetings, they *must* publish minutes and explain their actions to those who could not attend.

I'm guessing that you did not mean to imply that Phoenix has been doing design in secret and only showing particular results in public, but that sure what the email read like...  It's hard being open - it's takes more effort than you are used to in a closed development organization. Being open is about revealing *all* your efforts to the larger community, not just selected moments.

As Phoenix Committers we

must retain some control over the design and content that is to be layed

out. 

True, but there is a big difference between the committers being the final decision makers and the committers not working in public. Committers on Eclipse projects must work in public, period. Committers must also be decision makers. And, at times, that means that Committers must have thick skins because revealing all invites criticsm and you will never be able to satisfy everyone. But a fear of offending someone in the community is not an excuse for not working in public.

- Bjorn