Teams

Teams currently working (or suggested to be formed) in the community. The responsible Coordinator maintains contact and status. See below for the currently proposed simple model on how Teams are run. Any Team listed with a question mark on team leader has not formally started yet and is thus only proposed.

Teams for the current Teams list. I will keep that page updated now (October 20, 2005) but don't plan to continue to update the lists here any longer.

Teams (scope limited)

Name	Description	Coordinator initial	Team leader
WebSite	Getting a new design and first content in place for www.squeak.org	GK	Jason Rogers (was Stephane Ducasse)
MorphicSplitters	As explained in report 1.	DW (better if not same as team leader)	Cees de Groot
ToolBuilder	(a.k.a. the "UI" team) As explained in report 1.	CdG	Brian Brown
Packages	Partitioning, PI, packages, TFNR, SM, Universes etc. Evolving the tools and assigning parts of the 3.9 image, and much more.	DW	Avi Bryant
Modules	Spoon, Islands, Environments, Namespaces, ClassBoxes etc.	GK	Dan Ingalls
Janitors	A Team to have a very narrow focus initially on making minimal changes to the existing system and using the existing tools to get the process moving a bit more freely. Includes bug/fix/enh tracking, some harvesting-related issues.	DW	Ken Causey
v3.9	A Team focused on delivering the 3.9 release.	CdG	Doug Way

Teams (unlimited)

Name	Description	Coordinator initial	Team leader
FileArea	Maintaining file area on http://box1.squeakfoundation.org/files	GK	Bruce O'Neel
Box Administrators	Maintaining box1 and box2.	CdG	Ken Causey
News	Handling the production of the Squeak Weekly and other related tasks	KLC	Giovanni Corriga
Election	Responsible for replacing SqueakFoundation Board members	KLC	Brent Vukmer
Files Stewards	Responsible for the Files category of classes in the Basic Squeak Image	KLC	Cees de Groot
Network Stewards	Maintaining the Network- and NetworkTests- categories of classess in the Basic Squeak Image	To be announced	Göran Krampe

Team mailing lists

Most (preferably all) teams should have their own mailing list. A handy reference to all Team mailing list archives has been set up at http://discuss.squeakfoundation.org/. You can subscribe to any list by going to the list's archive and clicking on eSubscribe.

Team model

Now, one of these "processes" we keep yapping about is how to partition our efforts in this community. If we think back on the history of squeak-dev we have been lousy at working in teams. SqC didn't really do anything in that direction and the Guides - we didn't either - we sucked just as much as SqC. :) But we think this is a key issue.

When there is a need perceived in this community, call it a project or task or whatever, we will try hard to detect it. If you think there is a need to be adressed - say so. What we will try to do then is to find an individual Squeaker to grab that issue by the... mouse ears, and form a Team around it. I just use capital T to denote that we do have some (few) rules about such a Team:

A Team is started when a Team leader is assigned. This is today done by us, but later on the model will of course be based on whatever comes out of the SqF work. We also assign one of us to track that Team and to keep in touch with the Team leader. From then on the Team leader takes over.
The Team should work openly. Setting up mailinglists and/or Swikis is of course fine, but they should be readable by us all. We don't want to endorse "secret" work.
Anyone can join a team, but the team leader is King. I mean, if some wacko joins and starts shouting "Java! Java!" then the leader has our support in kicking out the wacko. :)
After the Team is started we would like to get some plan from the team leader. It doesn't have to be complicated at all, just some statement on the intentions on how to proceed.

So obviously the Team leader has more or less total power, which also means responsibility. The Team may fail to deliver of course, no big deal, but managing the Team should be cared for by the team leader regardless of such a failure.

Now... what are the effects we hope to get out of this model?

Since we keep track of Teams and Team leaders and since we track their status, just that simple thing will make it much easier for all of us knowing "What is going on?". This issue is one of our burning ones, btw. It means you can always take a look at the Team table - and voila, there you see whom to contact etc. For example, currently you see that Cees de Groot is team leader on MinimalMorphic - so if you like to help with that (stripping etc) - talk to Cees.
Since a team leader is sticking out his/her head and actually takes responsibility and is being delegated full power, we think the incentives for actually getting results done is much higher than before. And the Team can rest safe that their work isn't going to be forgotten and generally thrown in the garbage bin.
The noise on squeak-dev should hopefully go down a bit. This is also one of the burning issues.
Also it will be quite clear that we (Coordinators) are actually much more in the coordination business than in the Dictator business or in the SuperCoder business.

Of course, we are not saying forming a Team is the only way to work in the squeak-dev community, but it would have a few advantages compared to "just doing it":

The Team gets one of us tracking it and helping out with coordination with the other Teams and release planning. Hopefully a valuable service.
The Team gets our feedback, which of course may be crap but we will give it. :)
When results are about to be delivered our group is there to help in getting it received and properly dealt with. It is our responsibility to make sure a Team doesn't work a lot on something that then doesn't get a proper reception.
And of course, a Team has our support, since we are doing the above. Such endorsement may be worth less to some, but it is there anyway.