Stewards Council Telecon: 2008 May 7

Call in number: 1-605-475-4333 access code: 181783

= Attending =


 * Pamela Dingle
 * Kaliya Hamlin
 * Eugene Eric Kim
 * Fen Labalme
 * Drummond Reed
 * Chris Reynolds
 * Mary Ruddy
 * Paul Trevithick

= Agenda =


 * Infrastructure Status update
 * Shifting language from "working" groups to "community" groups – so people are more comfortable joining.
 * IdCommons meetings to have during/around IIW (Some on Monday AM or Tuesday before dinner.)
 * Sessions to call at IIW
 * Have a Collaborative tools meeting at IIW to discuss future strategy. Fen and Paul can call in Wed. AM.
 * Have a budgeting call Monday AM at IIW
 * Have a meeting on storyboarding a video at IIW
 * Having meeting(s) at IIW for budgeting process and operations and focus meeting on strategy after Tuesday’s close before dinner.
 * New Working Group


 * Review the action items list that Kaliya and Mary are working through. http://wiki.idcommons.net/index.php/General_IdCommons_Action_Items from our meeting in California in March, including the newer sub pages: http://wiki.idcommons.net/index.php/Community_Outreach_and_Development_Plan and http://wiki.idcommons.net/index.php/Budget_Process It needs input to continue to evolve.
 * Community outreach and development plan http://wiki.idcommons.net/index.php/Community_Outreach_and_Development_Plan - Please review and add/update things.
 * After have outreach plan, can budget for items


 * Eugene's transition after June 1?

= Summary =

Fen is moving files to the new machine. Needs to configure them and switch the DNS, so that he can hand the reins over to Stas.

Some folks who would like to join IC have trouble with phrase, "Working Group." It feels heavyweight and doesn't fit with what they want to do with IC. Groups that are autonomous have trouble with this language, since it implies hierarchy or being under the control of something.

The positive of "Working Group" it that it implies that the group is actually doing something, which is a strong part of our culture and mission.

We kicked around several ideas -- "Community Group," "Group," and "Affiliate," before converging on "Action Group," which we'll propose to the list.

Paul and Kaliya discussed what the Working Groups page on the Wiki should look like. They agreed to take that conversation offline and agree on a format.

Mary asked what IC meetings we should have at IIW next week. She proposed a collaboration SIG phone call with Fen and Paul, neither of whom will be able to make it. She also proposed a session for storyboarding a video about IC. Everyone was enthusiastic about this. Chris Reynolds (whose company, Hot Plate, does video work), volunteered to drive this process. Drummond (a former screenwriter) volunteered to help.

Kaliya asked if we should have a Stewards Council meeting at IIW. Eugene suggested that having a regular ritual for the Stewards Council where we come together, welcome new Stewards, and reacquaint ourselves with each other, would be valuable. Kaliya will post the schedule for IIW, and we'll brainstorm ideas and a time on the list.

Markus, Drummond, and Paul want to form an Action Group on Universal Data Identifiers. This raised questions about the whole Working Group approval process. Eugene explained that one of the bottlenecks has been that the Stewards Council and Working Group lists got wrangled on the Wiki, and that we need to dewrangle those before we can have new votes. (Mary and Eugene volunteered to do this.)

Drummond expressed concerns that the current approval process is too heavyweight, and proposed a process of "without objection" approval, where a group would get automatically approved after a certain time if no Steward objects. Both Eugene and Kaliya strongly disagreed, saying that the problem up until this point is that the Stewards need to be more accountable with their responsibilities (which, in an ideal world, is largely about approving Working Groups). Drummond will post his proposal on the mailing list for discussion.

= Next Call =

Next Stewards Call is June