>> For the second point, I proposed to ask ESUG if we could get some 
>> money to change the first user interface of squeak: the web site and 
>> get it better following www.seaside.st I need some figures first
>>
> You don't need money for that - you need a commitment by whoever is 
> controlling the website that the thing is handed over to the 
> community. There have been numerous redesigns, some better than 
> others,

I did not see then been done. I saw discussions about them.

> but as long as the community is not able to decide about what is being 
> put up there, nothing will change.

I would like to have someone like for the squeak.de web site that 
actively maintain the web site.
and produce a good design.

> Most of the 'issues' with the Squeak community are not issues that are 
> solvable with money, they are issues that are solvable by empowerment. 
> If the-powers-that-be do not empower the community, you can start 
> collecting piles of money but nothing will change.

Paying a good squeaker to maintain/include fixes/ cleaning is about 
money. Imagine we could pay someone like Ned full time or even 
half-time then we would make sure that something would be done.

> So, we have a community-owned and community-controlled server now. 
> It's running fine, and the purse is filled for the coming year.

You mean squeakpeople
I think that this is not the only model available in the sense that 
someone not expert but really active in the collaboration with 
open-source movement should have his words too.

> Whoever controls www.squeak.org - can we transfer this site to that 
> server, please?
>
> Only if that has been done we can seriously talk about re-designing 
> it, IMNSHO. And only if we have a satisfactory portal, with 'how stuff 
> works' being explained to all community members (instead of the select 
> few that actually manage to find out about the harvesting 
> tools/process), we can start complaining about no-one having time and 
> thinking about hiring a hand to solve that (which I think is probably 
> the worst thing you can do with funding, having him/her doing 
> administrative chores).

This is your point of view.  And what I see as the net result is that 
again nothing will happen since we cannot continue to rely and guys 
like marcus or doug that got burned by the process. this is something
different to have mailing-list running than going over the tons of fix 
and evaluate them.

Stef