[OSGeo-Conf] Advice on Comments vs. Questions

[Cameron Shorter]

Eric,
In responding to Lorenzo's recent questions about foss4g 2010, Paul and 
I  noted that as FOSS4G chair, you will regularly have relatively high 
impact decisions to make, with no clear obvious answer, and many 
conflicting community opinions.

It will be your job to make decisions quickly and efficiently, 
consulting the LOC and communities where appropriate, but not spending 
lots of the communities time making a decision.
Your committee will be much more effective working on getting things done.

So my advice is:
1. Only turn to the community for a decision if you will gain value from 
multiple opinions. This will quite often start from a community suggestion.

2. If you turn to the community for a decision, be very clear about the 
question you ask, and the action that will happen as a consequence of 
the decison, and a deadline for when the decision will be made.
Eg:
"LOC, I'm looking to determine whether we have 1 or 2 days or workshops, 
following on from comments by ... and ... . Please state your opinion 
and why. I intend to make a call on this in a week's time, on 6 May."



On 29/05/10 06:25, Jeff McKenna wrote:
> Eric,
>
> I think you've done an excellent job in answering our questions and 
> listening to our advice.  I agree that we are overwhelming you with 
> questions.
>
> I don't see or have any show stoppers.  I think we can call the public 
> question period over, and I am sure you will bring our concerns and 
> suggestions to the rest of the Denver LOC.
>
> If any other conference committee member has a concern/question about 
> the Denver bid, you can email me directly this weekend and I will 
> compile the addition questions for the Denver team.  I hope this can 
> alleviate the pressure on you Eric.
>
> -jeff
>
>
>
>
> Eric Wolf wrote:
>> Conference Committee members:
>>
>> I am beginning to feel a little overwhelmed managing comments and 
>> questions. I would like some advice. I am prioritizing questions. 
>> Should I attempt responding to comments?
>>
>> Can you separate out questions that you specifically feel need 
>> addressed to help you make a final decision?
>>
>> I ask this because I am beginning to think we would be best served by 
>> basically tossing out the preliminary budget and program from the 
>> proposal. The effort involved in resolving individual questions is 
>> likely greater than building from scratch together. That is, instead 
>> of refactoring the existing code, it's time for a rewrite.
>>
>
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Cameron Shorter
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