Your help wanted in creating the BeagleBoard.org Foundation bylaws

GoogleGroups
1

I'm looking to recruit a single person willing to take input from the
community for creation of a real draft of community-friendly
BeagleBoard.org Foundation bylaws. By default that person is me,
simply because I'm writing this e-mail. However, I don't think I have
the bandwidth to do the task justice. The need is to take inputs from
this e-mail thread as well as items put into the wiki page and to
summarily update the wiki page to best reflect the community input.
Naturally this will be a judgement call, but that might be a reason
for you to throw your hat in the ring early for me to appoint you as
draft-bylaws-czar.

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard_bylaws

The above is the link to the wiki page that needs editing. It is open
to anyone in the community to edit it to start providing your inputs.
Aforementioned draft-bylaws-czar shall be responsible for cleaning up
edits and reverting edits that don't make good sense or otherwise need
more community review before being adopted.

Looking forward to your inputs on how we run BeagleBoard.org!

2

Jason,

I’m Lucas Tanure. I’m writing a new page for elinux.org, http://elinux.org/Building_for_BeagleBone.
And helping to improve http://elinux.org/BeagleBone_Community.
I would like help you in this task, I just need a little more clarification about the dutty for the draft-bylaws-czar.

Lucas Tanure == https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucastanure.

Cheers

3

Jason,

I’m Lucas Tanure. I’m writing a new page for elinux.org, http://elinux.org/Building_for_BeagleBone.
And helping to improve http://elinux.org/BeagleBone_Community.
I would like help you in this task, I just need a little more clarification about the dutty for the draft-bylaws-czar.

What kind of clarification?

4

The main task is read all the threads from this community, to filter the most important and update http://elinux.org/Beagleboard_bylaws. Also, weekly review the wiki to remove unwanted modifications.
Right ?
I just want to be sure before anything else.

Thanks
Cheers

5

The main task is read all the threads from this community, to filter the
most important and update Beagleboard bylaws - eLinux.org. Also, weekly
review the wiki to remove unwanted modifications.
Right ?
I just want to be sure before anything else.

You can Protect the wiki page either once it's in a semi-complete
state, or right now and then only the person who is the bylaws-czar
can update it.

6

The main task is read all the threads from this community, to filter the
most important and update Beagleboard bylaws - eLinux.org. Also, weekly
review the wiki to remove unwanted modifications.
Right ?
I just want to be sure before anything else.

You can Protect the wiki page either once it's in a semi-complete
state, or right now and then only the person who is the bylaws-czar
can update it.

We'll do exactly that when it starts to get close so that we can use
it in an official way.

7

The main task is read all the threads from this community,

I wouldn't say all threads. Would be nice to do, but I'd suggest that
people reply to *this* thread with their opinions. We might need a few
blog posts and other activity to encourage people to start giving
inputs.

to filter the
most important and update Beagleboard bylaws - eLinux.org.

Correct.

Also, weekly
review the wiki to remove unwanted modifications.

I'd suggest at least twice a week. I don't want this to take forever.

8

I still do not follow. I read the wiki link you gave Jason, but encourage people to input on what exactly ? How Beagelboard.org is run ? Clarification is needed, I mean why would I want to tell you how to run your non-profit business ?

From the outside looking in, what little I can see, it seems things are fine. I mean what more could we as “users” of the hardware and software provided ask from people who contribute their time to the community “free of charge” ?

9

I still do not follow. I read the wiki link you gave Jason, but encourage
people to input on what exactly ? How Beagelboard.org is run ?

Yes.

Clarification
is needed, I mean why would I want to tell you how to run your non-profit
business ?

The idea is to reward people in the community for their participation
by giving them a larger role in the direction of the project.
Certainly folks like Robert Nelson have tremendous influence, but
there are so many things that could be focus areas.

From the outside looking in, what little I can see, it seems things are
fine. I mean what more could we as "users" of the hardware and software
provided ask from people who contribute their time to the community "free of
charge" ?

You can ask things of me as I'm paid. We can also present a solid
voice to the TI software development teams. The priority of "make the
mainline work" is fairly well understood, but I think we can drill
down a bit deeper. Also, I have a bit of budget due to logo licensing
and it feels disingenuous to spend it without some community input.
I'm looking for help in setting priorities. Perhaps the most practical
priority is in doing give-aways at trade shows, for projects, etc.

I'm not looking to shake things up too much, but I think there can be
some good to define what it means to be a "member".

10

I still do not follow. I read the wiki link you gave Jason, but encourage
people to input on what exactly ? How Beagelboard.org is run ?

Yes.

Clarification
is needed, I mean why would I want to tell you how to run your non-profit
business ?

The idea is to reward people in the community for their participation
by giving them a larger role in the direction of the project.
Certainly folks like Robert Nelson have tremendous influence, but
there are so many things that could be focus areas.

From the outside looking in, what little I can see, it seems things are
fine. I mean what more could we as "users" of the hardware and software
provided ask from people who contribute their time to the community "free of
charge" ?

You can ask things of me as I'm paid. We can also present a solid
voice to the TI software development teams. The priority of "make the
mainline work" is fairly well understood, but I think we can drill
down a bit deeper. Also, I have a bit of budget due to logo licensing
and it feels disingenuous to spend it without some community input.
I'm looking for help in setting priorities. Perhaps the most practical
priority is in doing give-aways at trade shows, for projects, etc.

I'm not looking to shake things up too much, but I think there can be
some good to define what it means to be a "member".

Not sure if this is much use:
http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2011/01/open-source-community-building-a-guide-to-getting-it-right/

Don't want to repeat Maemo, but they did a few things right and we can
certainly learn some lessons from them.

11

Ah, ok got it.

Well . . . since it’s been well over a year I think the video drivers need priority. This is something that I personally have no interest in, HOWEVER many do have interest, and I think it is high time TI made an effort to work with the community on this.

From the outside looking in, it very much looks like TI is dragging their feet in this respect, and in a way reflects that TI has no pride in their products. Surely, there is much more to this than I realize, but that really is no excuse.

So my point here I suppose is that if one business can not provide a working part, then perhaps it is time to look elsewhere for the specific part. Being an American myself I prefer to spend American, but a working part that has no software support is pretty much useless. That also doesn’t mean half fast. . .

It means working period, not only on x.y.z kernel running a single OS ( Android ? really ?! )

12

Jason,

I would like to help. So count me in.

Thanks

13

As a commercial user of the bbb I, and others I’ve talked to, feel the same way about the video driver support on the BBB. There is a market opportunity for someone if they could build a board of similar cost/performance but with mainline kernel graphics support. I’d certainly prefer if TI could correct the deficiency with the am335x though.

Chris

14

Can you save that for a different thread? What bylaws are desired to
help make BeagleBoard.org Foundation beneficial to the BeagleBoard.org
community? Please try to stick to that topic on this thread.

15

I understand, apologies for the distraction. It looks like you have the
spirit of our comments in the first entry under "purpose" of the proposed
bylaws.

Chris

16

Ok, My apologies too. Still, I think we hit on an important subject. Making sure all Beagle hardware is well supported in Linux.

17

This is what I think. Could you guys comment ?## Members- Who can join?
Anyone who is active in the BeagleBoard.org forum and has developed a cape for beagle.

  • Will there be dues?
    To be a member, the applicant should pay an annual fee. This money is reversed to the foundation maintenance and pay expenses set forth in the purposes.

In order to provide hack days for BeagleBoard.org the foundation could charge for participation in these hack days.

  • Are there different classes of membership?

We could create 3 types of members.

  • The basic, who could vote in subjects opened for all the community. Anyone could be basic.
  • The developer, who could vote in subjects that focus on what should the BeagleBoard.org Foundation is spending time and resources. This member is a active member of forum, get help from community and also provide help.
  • The developer team, basically a team that owns a cape for BeagleBoard and wants support from community and BeagleBoard.org Foundation. As the normal developers, this member could ask to organize hack days, so others could help to improve their cape support.

A member is allocated into one of these categories given their participation in the community, whether developing or providing help. The moderators do that.

  • What is a quorum and how are members notified of meetings?
    A subject can only be approved if more than 60%, of members able to vote for this issue, vote for them.

When the issue is closed for voting, all the participants should receive one e-mail, whether favorable or not the subject.

  • Will there be voting, how will it run and what actions can be taken as the result of a vote?
    We could use https://vote.heliosvoting.org/.
    I do not know this project, but we need to open a voting issue and set a max day to vote.
    Should be simple, able to vote by e-mail or site, identify and secure the member vote.

Thanks

18

This is what I think. Could you guys comment ?

Thanks for taking a pass at this.

Members

Who can join?

Anyone who is active in the BeagleBoard.org forum and has developed a cape
for beagle.

Certainly people who have only contributed software should be able to
join. I like the idea that some sort of output is required. How about
answered a query on the forum to the satisfaction of the person who
asked the question AND either has a commit to one of the repositories
at BeagleBoard.org · GitHub or a design listed at
http://beaglebonecapes.com?

Will there be dues?

To be a member, the applicant should pay an annual fee. This money is
reversed to the foundation maintenance and pay expenses set forth in the
purposes.
In order to provide hack days for BeagleBoard.org the foundation could
charge for participation in these hack days.

How much? What should members get for this fee?

19

Jason,

I was thinking in all the questions that you made in previous email and I made the conclusion that first we need to find out who we are.

I think that before we define how the foundation will run, we need to ask who wants to join the foundation.
We need to run a survey. Questions like :

Which board do you use ? White Black ?
Do you use more boards than Beagles ? Like Intel Galileo, raspberry pi ?
What type of use you do, for yourself, to community, commercial ?
Which license you use for your work ? BSD, GPL , Private ?
Which language do you use ? C, C++, Python, Java?
Do you develop a cape for Beagles ? If yes, what is the purpose?
Do you agree to pay a small fee to the foundation ? If yes, what you expect in return ?
If your return was : “A very good documentation about Beagles. How To develop for beagles in any language that fits my needs”. Do you agree that only people who paid the small fee should get access to documentation ?
Would you like to join the foundation?

Do you would pay for that? If yes, how much?

What do you miss in Beagles ? Library’s to do your work ? A better Documentation ? Cheaper price for boards ? A Store to sell your cape ? A store to find all the capes that are develop for beagle.

This are a few questions that I have in mind. After we discover who we are, we can decide where to go.
And you, what you think ?

Thanks
Cheers

20

Jason,

I was thinking in all the questions that you made in previous email and I made the conclusion that first we need to find out who we are.

I think that before we define how the foundation will run, we need to ask who wants to join the foundation.

Part of the trick to what you are suggesting is making people aware of the survey. There is also difficulty in interpreting it and asking the right questions. Perhaps more can be learned from the discourse that has already happened.

We need to run a survey. Questions like :

Which board do you use ? White Black ?

We know Bone Black is the most popular.

Do you use more boards than Beagles ? Like Intel Galileo, raspberry pi ?
What type of use you do, for yourself, to community, commercial ?
Which license you use for your work ? BSD, GPL , Private ?
Which language do you use ? C, C++, Python, Java?
Do you develop a cape for Beagles ? If yes, what is the purpose?
Do you agree to pay a small fee to the foundation ? If yes, what you expect in return ?

This last part is most interesting to me. if we get organized, can we do things to improve the state of things for the community?

If your return was : “A very good documentation about Beagles. How To develop for beagles in any language that fits my needs”. Do you agree that only people who paid the small fee should get access to documentation ?

I’d like to avoid charging for bits and give time or atoms in exchange for money if you are trying to say what exclusively someone should get for paying a membership fee.

Would you like to join the foundation?

Do you would pay for that? If yes, how much?

What do you miss in Beagles ? Library’s to do your work ? A better Documentation ? Cheaper price for boards ? A Store to sell your cape ? A store to find all the capes that are develop for beagle.

This are a few questions that I have in mind. After we discover who we are, we can decide where to go.
And you, what you think ?

if the information is kept open to the community, then I’d be fine with you running a survey. Not cool to collect data about Beaglers for private benefit.