Foswiki Association Board Meeting Minutes 2010-01-18

Agenda

1. Accept minutes of previous meeting
   1. CrawfordCurrie believes the minutes represent a true and accurate record of our meeting; please indicate if you disagree. (CDot)
2. Review incomplete actions
   1. Status of (bank, paypal) accounts (Oliver)
   2. Status of legal registrations (new board members etc) (Oliver)
   3. Task team reviews - progress (Sven)
   4. Mailing list (Sven)
      • Sven has abandoned this idea as its not compatible with the privacy and open-ness of the group at this time.
3. Protecting the brand
   1. Trademark usage policy, see FoswikiTrademark
      1. CrawfordCurrie proposes that we develop a derivative the linux process http://www.linuxmark.org/faq.php
      2. If you don't agree, please have clear reasons
      3. Sven agrees with the linuxmark idea, but wishs to re-iterate that that does not quite apply to foswikisupport.com, unless the example site tries to suggest it comes /from/ foswiki (ie, the linuxmark allows non-trademark uses of linux, and defines 'traemark use' as a trademark is a name used in public to identify the source of specific goods and services), and thus I don't think linuxmark goes quite far enough - the drupal and debian ones feel to me to be much more in line with the reations I got.
   2. Logo design and selection process
      1. CrawfordCurrie proposes that we have a time-bound, online, vote driven process, and that we do not employ anyone.
      2. MichaelDaum does not agree. All proposals so far lack design skills. While it is fun to mock up some ideas, finishing a real logo needs a more serious attempt.
4. Release 1.0.9 to be released weekend of 16-17 of January.
   1. KennethLavrsen asks: Any activities we want to initiate with this or just normal quiet patch release?
   2. CrawfordCurrie recommends a quiet patch.
5. Goals for 2010. The intention is to state some SMART goals that we can use to help advertise the level of activity in the project. Examples of possible goals are:
   1. Software quality:
      • Measure unit test coverage, and address gaps shown up (CDot)
      • Automate testing on X platforms (e.g. Y flavours of Linux, Win32, MacOS Snow Leopard) (CDot)
      • Get the number of Normal bugs below 50 by April 2010 and keep it there. (Lavr)
      • Get the number of bugs waiting for feedback below 20 by 2010 and keep it there. (Lavr)
   2. Usability and user experience:
      • Release a new "usability driven" UI (CDot)
   3. Roadmap and release prospects:
      • we need to provide a perspective for users and developers where the boat is floating to before a release happens
      • Getting 1.1. released by end May 2010 with feature freeze end of March and release branched to Release01x01 and code frozen and of April. (Lavr)
   4. Public relation:
      • events to keep an eye on, i.e. upcoming conferences, competitions, ...
      • Foswiki sessions in 2 major conferences (CDot)
      • MichaelDaum will be visiting CeBIT2010, WikiSym
   5. Activities of the Foswiki Association
      • get it ready to receive (tax deductible) donations (Oliver)
   6. Marketing initiatives
      • numbers: the activities on the project should be evaluated regularly and used for marketing purposes (ohloh, sourceforge, checkins, downloads, size of community on foswiki.org, estimate of the user base, ...)
      • summits: when do we plan the next foswiki summit and general assembly. better start planning early.
      • testimonials
      • news articles:
        • on the foswiki blog: at least one blog post per week on our own blog, all year (CDot)
        • Foswiki related articles in 2 print magazines (Oliver)
        • contact 3rd party online news sites
      • merchandising: t-shirts, mugs etc to wear and offer on conferences and summits
6. Reviewing current task teams (Sven)
   1. CrawfordCurrie notes that he made a first pass over the task team pages. Limited response from team leaders.
   2. MichaelDaum proposes to give team leaders a second chance to respond but now with a definite timeline after which the team is considered abandoned and will be closed.
   3. SvenDowideit points out that early feedback suggests to me that the christmas break is a bad time to ask for feedback - people are busy, or away. I don't think pushing people away with threats and demands will get more done.
   4. foswiki.org: what's the status quo of the homepage redesign initiative? I had the impression the current version is only an interim solution. Now things got staled at that frontier.
7. Date of next meeting

Attendees

OliverKrueger (ok), MichaelDaum (md), KennethLavrsen (lavr), SvenDowideit (sd), CrawfordCurrie (cdot)

Chair: Main...., Minutes: Main....

Actions

Please strike out completed actions and add a link to any relevant discussions or other info

Decisions

All votes were unaninous unless documented otherwise.

Date of next meeting

Next meeting will be 2010-02-15, 6:30 GMT, via skype or conf bridge

Meeting minutes:

• last minutes accepted by all
• Oliver still working on banking and legal stuff. correspondence going on. ACTION: Oliver, please add details on status
• Sven carries on with trademark action; CDot will join kicking some people for feedback
• no mailing list for board right now. old core ml did create nastiness.
• brand: CDot discovered the linux process; look into adoption for foswiki; Sven: is it laxer than what has been expressed so far; Kenneth: we are not a commercial company, does not see a problem if there was a hamburger called foswiki; CDot: foswiki being used nominative here; Sven + CDot: discussing the difference to drupal; Oliver + all: don't have the resources to protect the trademark; CDot: interest of the project not to prosecute usage of foswiki; Kenneth: e.g. do we issue a license if someone creates a foswiki t-shirt. does not want to administrate licenses. Sven: points at debian (ACTION: Sven, please explain offline); CDot: constructive process, dont go further than trademark registration; simple principles;
• logo: process and design - CDot: proposes - no prof designer, fine bounded group to vote on. Michael: community not ready for prof designer. CDot: board needs to set up a process. Sven: a logo competition; CDot: process needs seeding with ideas, people pump ideas into the process, let's not close it to Arthur alone. Sven: get people start using things; Michael: series of voting to narrow down. proposes a task team for logo with one person leading the team. Sven: we don't need a new logo that urgent, CDot, Sven: process - wait and see. Kenneth: give Arthur the task to design the logo if he wants to. people provide input within a timelimit. CDot: speculation as Arthur hasnt been approached by the board yet. ACTION: CDot will approach Arthur and propose what we just discussed
• big thanks for release 1.0.9 - Kenneth: none of the marketing picked it up
• goals for 2010, Kenneth: scope and dates on releases in 2010; marketing takes it and "sell it". CDot: proposes to narrow down the list to three main areas/messages; Michael: what goes does the association have for 2010, what and how can we collect and spent money; Sven: problem of language; Kenneth: this is corporate language; Sven: should be rephrased more open-source-ish. CDot: ... more aspirations like. Agree: lets rewrite to get people interested
• reviewing task teams: Sven will do next week, more on next meeting ACTION: Michael will contact Carlo + Arthur about the homepage redesign task (ongoing discussion); Kenneth: the UX team might need of people to do the dev; ACTION: for all board members: push task teams you are part of.
• Date of next meeting: 2010-02-15