Teams

     If you're interested in joining a team, please email the team leader. If you'd like to create a new team, propose it on the squeak-dev mailing list. For details on the team model, see below.

the current teams

the Team model

     Teams are formed by the (elected) Squeak Oversight Board, in response to needs articulated by the community. If you'd like a new team, please let us know by responding to meeting minutes on the squeak-dev mailing list (the web team is working on a web-based mechanism). The board will canvas the community for people interested in leading the proposed team, and choose one. Typically, the new team's leader then chooses the other members as desired. The release teams are exceptions; the board chooses all the release teams' members.

     Each team has an advisor from the board. This is someone to whom the team can go for help when they need it.

     Each team should work openly. Setting up mailing lists, wikis, and the like is fine, but they should be readable by the entire community. We don't want to endorse "secret" work. After a team is started, the board would like to get some plan from the team leader. It doesn't have to be complicated, just a statement of intent about how to proceed.

     Clearly, the team leader has more or less total power, which also means responsibility. The team may fail to deliver, of course, but managing the team should be cared for by the team leader regardless of such a failure.

     Now... what do we hope to gain from this model?

• You can always take a look at the team table and see who to contact about a particular area.
• Since a team leader is taking responsibility for the team, we think the incentive for getting results is greater. Also, the Team can rest assured that their work isn't going to be forgotten and discarded.
• Hopefully, the noise on the squeak-dev mailing list will go down a bit (we've had a longstanding problem with this).
  
• It will be clear that the board is in the "coordination business" rather than the "dictator business" or in the "super-coder business". That team is elected to make delegate reposonsibility for tasks to willing members of the community, and to decide issues that the community cannot decide for itself.
  

     Of course, we're not saying forming a team is the only way to work in the Squeak community, but it has a few advantages compared to "just doing it":

• When a team is about to deliver results, the board is there to help deal with those results properly. It's the board's responsibility to make sure a team doesn't spend a lot of effort on something which then doesn't get a proper reception.
• Through the leadership team, each team has the official support of the Squeak project. The value of such an endorsement may vary between community members; nevertheless, we think it's important to state it.
  

     Finally, if you think one of the teams listed above has become inactive, needs a new leader, or should be disbanded, please let the board know, by responding to meeting minutes on the squeak-dev mailing list (the web team is working on a web-based mechanism).

     If you would like to edit this page, please contact Craig to discuss it first.