ODK is currently governed by a Project Management Committee (PMC). The rules and responsibilities of the PMC are detailed here, but in summary, the PMC's role is to ensure the ODK project runs smoothly.
In order to provide greater visibility into the goings-on of PMC, the PMC will update this topic with the notes from our monthly meetings. We try to be as open as possible, but sensitive topics (e.g., involving individuals, exploratory work) will be excluded.
If there is an issue within the notes that you'd like to discuss, please start a new topic.
We will be shipping improved server for XLSForm to prevent downtime like from last week. That plus distributing server access to non-UW people should help.
The consensus is that we have a number of new committers that need approval and old committers that should be removed and we need a process around this.
ODK 2 Update
Developer calls got bumped. Consensus reached on times starting in December. Plan is to ship monthly releases across most of the tools. More at ODK 2.0 Developer Calls - #16 by litlfred
Consensus that this is a great way to get new folks into the project. UW and Nafundi should not apply, but should instead facilitate.
We need a framework document for community members to stick in their proposals.
TSC formation
Haven't heard from Open Source Center (OSC) in a while. We should draft an initial application to get the ball rolling.
Suggestion made for moving forward with rough application on Google Forms with questions like name, org, history with ODK, the reason you want to be on TSC, how much time can you commit, any known risks or conflicts of interest.
Consensus is that draft application should be sent to OSC and they should take lead to ensure a fair and transparent process.
Hope is that PMC can vote in mid-Dec, but it's probable this will get bumped to Jan because of holidays.
Concept notes
No clear decision made yet on concept notes
Suggestion made that given the time it has taken to do anything, we think about adopting G (no Transition Board). Then New PMC forms transition Working Group, leads Mission/Values, etc.
There is a consensus that the speed and lack of participants to drive these efforts is a problem. This suggestion is a potentially big change and will require some more discussion. In the meanwhile, there are parallelizable tasks (e.g., Mission/Values) to do to speed things up. Also, discuss with OSC.
Action items
[*] @yanokwa Setup meeting with OSC to discuss TSC selection for next week
@yanokwa Draft policy document for GitHub permissions
[*] @yanokwa Draft proposal template for DIAL grant
@W_Brunette Will review ODK site, OpenMRS, OpenLMIS, and existing discussions and draft a Mission/Values document for community feedback.
Transferred the docs from general website to docs website
Community
GSOC/Outreachy are in selection phase
Strong proposals from good candidates
April 24th selection announcement date
No community announcement draft
No social media person announcement
Transition priorities
Website process
Waylon/Yaw/Michael talked and have put community process in place
Waylon decided to bump dates. Yaw agreed.
Gaps: Waylon will ask people on forum to start taking on issues
Waylon/Yaw coordinate on a good time block
High priority issues that are blocking shipping have been tagged
Much more to do that was expected to get to launch
Help needed to move to resolve those issues. There are gaps and the people who are best positioned to fill those gaps are busy.
Waylon will block out a few days to move PRs forward.
Yaw will be available to help move PRs forward.
PMC to schedule meeting in 2 weeks or less
Discussion of community concerns about the sequencing of transition tasks
Agreement that 1 and 2 naming isn’t great
Confusion is a problem
Having multiple websites with wrong information creates confusion
Naming creates some confusion
PMC will be considering possible solutions in the next two weeks and will hold a non-regular meeting to discuss before the next monthly meeting. Summary of the thoughts discussed:
Start a conversation around naming that tries to separate larger issues with branding, ecosystem to move quickly
Might be easier to propose a expeditious rename of ODK 2
There are numerous improvements going on with the ODK project. A website relaunch should not be blocked by content as the content will always be changing. There should not need to be major project change to relaunch a website. The issues should be able to be kept separated as change will continue. We strive to find sequences that work but if we wait for all changes the website could be delayed indefinitely.
You only get a website launch in front of people once. It can be minimal launch, but it has to be clear and cohesive because you only get one shot.
PMC should respond in the forum about sequencing so the community understands some of the issues and can suggest some ways forward.
Interim steps to accelerate process
Publish Drafts Mission and Values this weekend
Keep pushing on the changes to the website
Action items
Waylon: Draft message to forum responding to some concerns about sequencing. Share with PMC.
Waylon: Draft message to the website workgroup asking to join GitHub. Share with PMC.
Waylon: Send revised draft mission and values to PMC
Waylon/Yaw: Schedule a non-regular PMC meeting in a week or two.
Form update notifications, dark mode, file picker, satellite display, etc.
Almost done: SMS submissions, background geo
Next up: Rework repeats, autocomplete
Briefcase: Beta in a few weeks
Faster exports, faster push
Next up, multiple exports as part of Outreachy
Aggregate: Nothing to report
TSC has reviewed security report. Hope to fix priority issues soon.
XLSForm: Upgrade to new pyxform
Online and Offline with new pyxform
Docs: Lots of docs shipped
Question types, form logic, styling, operators, functions, logging
Skunkworks: New repo to incubate projects
GSOC P2P Sync
Jubilant Garbanzo
TSC has approved June public beta
ODK 2
Release of 2.0.5 coming in the next week
Code clean up. Respond to feedback.
Upcoming GSoC project Push Notification
Beta of Peer-To-Peer synchronization expected June
Community
Member count doubled since launch. Now at 7K.
DIAL Grant announced: Only one project will be funded.
Review action items (review all, then discuss)
Waylon/Yaw: Schedule a non-regular PMC meeting in a week or two.
Not done, but water under the bridge.
Waylon: Send revised draft mission and values to PMC.
We are basically done.
Waylon: Draft message to the website workgroup asking to join GitHub.
Done.
Waylon: Draft message to forum responding to some concerns about sequencing.
Ongoing. See agenda
Agenda
Ongoing draft message to the forum
No consensus, so message to community saying so and we can put out individual opinion.
Website update
Process seems to be working OK
Yaw has been fixing critical issues, Waylon has been merging
Couple of contributors taking on quick issues
Blocking on response to community
Some proposals
PMC should speak as one when a decision has been made. Lack of public proposals is a pain point because they are hard for community to eval. We can be more transparent and I think it’ll go faster. We do this on TSC and it works great.
Consensus we have is not lazy enough
Can’t wait a month to meet
Same time, next week
Community message
Yaw: will send
Action items
Waylon: Publish his note on forum that we can’t reach consensus. Express opinions individually.
Waylon: Mission and values are done. Should go into governance repo
Richard: Suggestion of launch on Friday, May 25, 2018.
Carl: Launch of Friday OK.
Waylon: I agree that sooner than June 15th, we have had a long process already seeking website feedback and don’t want to restart that. However, we should give a week (29th) so people can clarify any wording, help to decrease confusion, or bring up other concerns.
Yaw: OK with 29th.
Naming
Yaw: Will start a thread for PMC to post suggestions to start.
Waylon: Suggest post a process to the forum, invite the community to give suggestions. One strawman of the process is to post a survey to gather suggestions, PMC consults with ODK 1 TSC and ODK 2 devs to produce a small list with a few options. Finally, post the remaining options for the community to chose.
Richard: Gather suggestions, PMC discusses, set of options go back out the community. Concern that discussion re: process prevents starting.
Propose separate thread
Waylon: Will post to start the process thread asking some questions and go from there.
Next steps
Yaw: Post date on the forum. Same review and merge process as before.
If Yaw/Waylon don’t agree. Require tie-breaker from a member of the PMC.
Richard/Carl will be around for tie-breaking (hopefully not needed).
Waylon: Post starts the process thread. Will invite others.
PMC will have further discussions and update folks on naming.
Ask people not to say anything yet since it’s not official
Waylon
Will do some research, email PMC, once we get some agreement, then PM to same folks on the rest of renaming.
What does finishing look like?
Richard: Two tool suites. The higher level objective two separate tool suites as co-equal platforms under the ODK umbrella. Naming consistent with that.
Thinking some people from each TSC, and maybe some independent people.
Timeline: Timely fashion
Yaw: Agreed with Richard on getting Overall Governance and skipping transition board.
Carl: Richard’s view seems like a reasonable end game.
Waylon: Apache like structure is a goal, is in agreement with Richard’s view
Richard/Yaw: Preferred focus on the two things we have.
Transition board
The current PMC will hand things off to a new PMC with overall governance
If said new PMC wants to do a transition board, they can (e.g., through working group)