Hi fellas!

Emotions obviously running high in this thread and I haven't had time
nor actually the lust :) to participate yet.
I think this all looks a bit like people are arguing a lot but
essentially we probably agree on most points.

Andreas points about code ownership and pride etc is correct IMHO. It is
after all the basic idea behind distributing responsibility as was first
discussed in the TFNR vision (if you don't know, don't bother looking it
up).

I think we should all take a deep breath and get constructive. Let's see
what we have:

1. We do have a 3.9a with PIs covering the image. That is a good start,
regardless how those PIs are.

2. We have Marcus and Stephane struggling with using MC to prepare a
release and how to recieve MCs in an inbox and integrate. It is actually
good - because they are learning things during this struggle. ;) Exactly
what comes out of it we will see - but I consider this to be the process
of "release integration" and it actually doesn't stop the rest of us
from doing good work. They are simply trying to figure out how a Release
Team (we use that concept, remember?) should work.

3. Ken and I want to start getting Steward teams running. We thought the
best way is "by example". So we picked "Network" as our piece of the
puzzle. I went ahead and registered it on SM:

	http://map1.squeakfoundation.org/sm/packagebyname/Network

	- Note that I am the owner (=Steward Team Leader) and Ken is a
co-maintainer (=Team member).
	- Note the PackageInfo name, "Network". This means tools can map all
the code in the package to this SM package and thus to us and our emails
etc.

I have the last few days been pulling up the SqueakMap code and
refreshing it to a 3.7 image, latest KomHttpServer, HV etc and also
adding server side support for Kabungu, server side cache (!), branching
of releases (!), and a bunch of other smaller things like package
transferral etc. Coming soon to box2. :) But...

I am also adding three new "fields" on SMPackage:

	- feedbackEmail, this is an email address that people can send error
reports, changesets, gratulations or even .mcz's to.
	- repository, this is meant to point to an MC repo that is the dev repo
of the package.
	- repositoryInbox, this is meant to point to a drop place inside the
repository above in which .mcz's can be dropped by anyone.

Next step for Ken and me is to register a project on either
Squeaksource.com or source.squeakfoundation.org. Whichever. Then (when
the new SM is in place) we can point to that repo and even throw in an
email address in the feedbackEmail above.

At that point we are *all se*t for nice tool extensions making the life
of the average Squeaker better. I have already written code that adds a
menu choice in the changesorters saying "send to package maintainers" -
but we could now change it to "send to package team" (and use the
feedbackEmail). And Monticello could easily add a similar choice for
using the two other fields above.

This should make it trivial for regular Squeakers to feed the Steward
teams with goodness fixes and enhs. So... how does Mantis enter the
picture? Not sure, Ken has thoughts on that - I am fine with having
multiple routes here. If someone goes to Mantis - goodie. If someone
just fires an email to the Steward team, or drops an mcz - fine too. Ken
probably has other opinions but I like the ability to be direct.

Finally the Steward teams are meant to feed the Release Team (people
still say Harvesters - but as you can see that role is more or less gone
when we get more and more Steward teams) with mcz's that they can
integrate into a nice healthy image and do drop releases of that image
much like Marcus does today, which I actually think is a good way - it
is a trivial way of creating regular baselines that the Steward teams
can track.

Now, the idea was not to post about this until Ken and I had learned
more :), but I couldn't help it. What do you guys think?

My prediction is that the above scheme can work (but my trackrecord
sucks in this area :)) - and that we slowly will be getting Steward
teams stepping up and gaining members. One step at a time. We now have a
Network Team (and any of you network guys, email me and I will add you
as co-maintainers if I trust ya :) ) and I bet at least one more team is
willing to follow us, right?

If you think (allright damnit, I am following that crazy chap!) then
start by registering the team on SM (use the exact same name as the PI
name in 3.9, and don't forget to enter that in PackageInfo name too).

Note bug: If it says "package info name already taken" - it is a dead
silly bug, just clear it, save, enter it again, and save. ;)

Ken and I think that we then should use source.squeakfoundation.org as
the "default place" for these repos - and you can't create one there
without the admin helping you - so it is a bit of a showstopper at this
moment. But give us a few days to get more admins in line.

regards, Göran