On Sat, Apr 5, 2008 at 8:28 AM, Randal L. Schwartz
<merlyn at stonehenge.com> wrote:
...
>  I think it's the job of the board to be accountable for the
>  overall vision of Squeak.  I'd rather the board get out of the way when things
>  are already working, but if it's clear that things aren't working and some
>  decisions need to be made, I'll be personally motivated to make sure that
>  those shortcomings are on the board's agenda.

It strikes me that Edgar and co have got us 95% of the way to a
release that everyone would be happy with, and that the problem is
understanding who has to do what to complete that final 5%. The board
could help here by clarifying the release process. This could be a
straightforward task, which then puts the onus on the community to do
the legwork:

1) Agree and publish (on squeak.org) a set of criteria for releases to
be considered complete (formats, naming, pre-prepared bundles for key
OSes). Ken's email looks a good starting point. It may also be worth
considering whether specific criteria should be added to each future
release (eg target date, feature list).

2) Agree and publish (as above) a simple release process (e.g. release
manager announces to Board and squeak-dev list that they believe that
the image is ready for release. If no-one objects, the release manager
prepares all required files according to the agreed criteria and loads
them to a staging area, and announces to Board and squeak-dev list
that the packages are ready.  All then have the opportunity to check
that it meets the criteria,  and if no-one objects, the Board
announces the release. This authorises the release manager to copy the
files to their official home, the web team to update the squeak.org
links and the news team to publicise).

3)  For future releases ensure that there is a clearly defined release
manager who is aware of, and agrees with, the criteria and process.
The board have no further direct involvement with the release under
normal circumstances.

4) Once the criteria in (1) have been established, the Board should
consider if the work done for 3.10 meets them, and if not, ask for a
volunteer to co-ordinate the work required to do so.

I hate to add to the workload of people who already contribute their
free time, but given the importance of the Squeak.org releases to the
community, I suggest that this should be considered the main agenda
item for the next board meeting. Certainly getting (1) and (4) sorted
will help us put this release to bed quickly, and (2) and (3) will
help shape the discussions about the next release.

Based on the nature of the discussion so far, I will update the news
item on the Weekly Squeak to clarify that work is still under way to
produce final and fully packaged release files.

Cheers,
Michael