Re: communication

On Sat, Mar 22, 2003 at 08:03:07PM -0500, David Dawes wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 21, 2003 at 07:07:06PM -0500, Mark Vojkovich wrote:
> >On Fri, 21 Mar 2003, Keith Packard wrote:
> 
> >>     * Lack of cooperation with other projects
> >> 
> >>       The KDE and Gnome projects were forced to form the freedesktop.org
> >>       project to extend and enhance X Window System standards because
> >>       XFree86 refused even to participate in the process.
> >
> >   Who is the "XFree86" you are refering to here?  I do not remember 
> >this issue coming up for discussion at any time.
> 
> Neither do I.  I discovered freedesktop.org by accident one day,
> so I don't know who at XFree86 was approached about participating.
> 
> >> I have made limited progress in my attempts to address these issues. The
> >> opening of the XFree86 CVS repository and developer mailing lists to
> >> public access has benefitted X development significantly. In order to
> >> improve the technical coordination with other open source projects, I
> >> have become personally involved in many of them.
> >
> >  Yes, we know you have made progress in many aspects of the XFree86
> >project.  Your contributions to this project are why you were a
> >core XFree86 member.  You make it sound as though, despite being a core 
> >member of XFree86, you did not represent the XFree86 project in those
> >actions.  I always thought you were the XFree86 presence in those projects.
> 
> That was my understanding too.
> 
> >You make it sound more like you were merely the Keith Packard
> >presence in those projects.
> 
> That's unfortunate.  I've been wondering why Keith has been bringing
> up the lack of communication between XFree86 and those projects as
> an issue when we all thought that *he* was the key part of that
> communication channel.  It sounds like the best thing for the future
> would be for more representatives from those projects to participate
> directly in XFree86 development discussions ([email protected]).

I absolutely concur here to both David and Mark.

It's bizarre. In this situation of Keith being THE person representing
this specific communication channel - and he's not managed it at all well.

I've seen praise for Keith from the KDE and Gnome teams for the work
he's done to enhance the desktop, yet these projects bring with them
the belief that XFree86 is not listening to them. It strikes me as though
Keith is the one injecting these projects with that belief.

And we have Keith wanting to have new governance of X when he's not
managed this channel well at all.

Alan.