[News.eclipse.foundation] Re: [EDP] Mentors Council or Coaching Squad?

[Bjorn Freeman-Benson <bjorn.freeman-benson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ed Merks wrote:
> I really hope that I can dispel the notion that I oppose the AC 
> improving its mentoring role or that I oppose some other group taking on 
> such responsibilities.  I don't recall anyone at the AC taking that 
> position. 

My sincere apologies then for misunderstanding what was said at the AC 
meeting in Germany. I thought the statement about "processes are not 
part of the AC role" was pretty definite but ok... water under the bridge...

> As I said, my reaction was: "Aren't we supposed to be doing this 
> already? Is the AC being judged as doing its given role so poorly right 
> now that there is a need to create a whole new group to fix the 
> problem?"   

Officially, currently the Architecture Council is "responsible for the 
development, articulation, and maintenance of the Eclipse Platform 
Architecture" 
http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/Eclipse%20BYLAWS%202003_11_10%20Final.pdf#page=20

and then:
"This Council is responsible for providing an explicit description of 
the architecture and syndicating this description among the Development 
Teams, thereby protecting the architecture from inadvertent corruption. 
The Architecture Council is also responsible for plotting the evolution 
of the Architecture in response to the Purposes and Roadmap, which is 
captured in an Architecture Plan. Policies established by the 
Architecture Council are limited to the domain of architecture, e.g. the 
identification of immutable interfaces;"
http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/Eclipse%20Development%20Process%202003_11_09%20FINAL.pdf#page=3

and then:
"The Architecture Council produces an Architecture Plan that describes 
the architecture changes required to achieve these themes and 
priorities, or required to maintain long-term architectural viability."
http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/Eclipse%20Development%20Process%202003_11_09%20FINAL.pdf#page=6

I read these as meaning that the AC is responsible for the architecture 
portion of the Roadmap (the Architecture Plan). I guess one could read 
"syndicating" as mentoring, but I don't see mentoring mentioned 
explicitly anywhere. Furthermore, I read "limited to the domain of 
architecture" to mean that even if there where AC mentors, they wouldn't 
provide advice on social aspects (how to create/foster a community) or 
process issues (those reviews and that IP stuff) of Eclipse open source.

But, hey, if we're all in agreement that the AC should do these kind of 
things, I'm happy to put that into the Development Process document and 
work towards making that happen. I have no desire to create a fourth 
group - I only proposed it because the AC had appeared to reject a 
mentoring role.

- Bjorn