Re: New release manager

[Amos Shapira <amos@gezernet.co.il>]

On Fri, March 19 1999, Wichert Akkerman <leader@debian.org> wrote:
|Richard Braakman is our new release manager, and I wish him good luck in
|his new job. His task will not be easy with the switch to glibc2.1..

Good luck to Richard Braakman, from reading his description of how he
views the Debian project I'm sure that Debian will benefit a lot from
what he has to offer.

I'd like to try to suggest a twist on the way of release management:
"Area Managers" (or whatever name you fancy to call this).

Area Managers may be assigned to specific "sub-systems" of the release
and coordinate changes within them.  E.g. maybe an X11 Area Manager
and a Network Area Manager.  The responsibility should be defined well
enough to not allow any package "fall between the cracks" and help the
package managers know who can they reffer for help but the role
shouldn't be too restricted (i.e. don't treat it like a stiff
hierarchy of responsibilities in cases were it doesn't serve the
project's goals).  The Area Manager's main task would be to keep a
general overview of the area, major bugs concerning it and/or packages
'within' this area, tracking package maintainers about their bugs,
etc.  I think it would be a good idea to have some periodic
(bi-weekly, considering that most people have it as a side-hobbie?) 
status on Debian's web site maintained by each Area Manager.  The
managers might also report to the Release Manager and help him
concentrate on the "Big Picture".

What do you think?

Cheers,

--Amos

--Amos Shapira                    | "Of course Australia was marked for
133 Shlomo Ben-Yosef st.          |  glory, for its people had been chosen
Jerusalem 93 805                  |  by the finest judges in England."
ISRAEL        amos@gezernet.co.il |                     -- Anonymous