ICU PMC & Technical Meeting

3/22/2006

Notes by Andy Heninger

Attending:
Markus Scherer
Deborah Goldsmith
Andy Heninger
Doug Felt
Vladimir Weinstein
Mark Davis
Tex Texin
George Rhoten
Ram V.  (by phone)
Eric Mader  (by phone)

Initial Agenda (from Markus)

I would like to ask to discuss the redesigned ICU Joint Copyright
Assignment forms this Wednesday (see my email from last night about
them). I am particularly keen on feedback from anyone who is
interested in becoming an ongoing contributor. (I can think of 2 or 3
obvious suspects [companies].)

Other topics that I collected, for this or future meetings:
- PMC & leadership structure
- Eric: Should I add algorithmic Hangul composition to the LayoutEngine?
- Eric: Should the Linux version of the Layout sample application be
converted to use Gnome 2?
- Tex: more direct UTF-8 APIs in ICU, e.g., in resource bundles
- Markus: UText chunk & index semantics

Notes

redesigned ICU Joint Copyright Assignment

Markus described  the new copyright assignment forms.   The  non-IBM contributors will be taking them to their respective legal departments for approval.

PMC & leadership structure

Discussion

There was a great deal of  discussion on how the ICU project should be managed, and what the role of the PMC should be, in light of Markus and Vladimir's move from IBM to Google.

Some excerpts:

Mark:  
  1. May want to be more formal in deciding what wants to go into each release, with more contribution and requirements coming from outside of IBM
  2. Constitution of the PMC

Tex: if PMC representation should more or less reflects contribution, need to know contribution level for each company.  Don't know yet.

Vladimir:  Mark's PMC membership also reflect his position as president of Unicode, not just code contribution.

Markus: there has been little outside interest in the PMC, other than by people in this meeting.

Mark:  The PMC's role could become more one of coordinating contributions and of discussing different contributor's requirements, now that there will be more contributors.

Mark:  PMC could also coordinate development between contributors between companies, when more than one co. may participate on the development.

Tex:  PMC may also deal with schedule setting, when features in releases may be important to multiple companies.

Vladimir:  don't need to change anything at this time, since IBM is still driving releases.  In future, can be revisited if the community becomes much more active.

Andy:  PMC should watch how things are working over the next several months, hard to anticipate what issues will need to be addressed, if any.

Deborah:  no strong opinion on making changes at this time.

Tex:  Proceed with short term things for now, then maybe 6 mos or a year from now, we should have a better definition of the role and functioning of the PMC.

Markus:  near term, need to figure out who should be on the PMC right now, today.  Current members are Mark, Doug, Deborah, Tex.   Vladimir & Markus have resigned.

Mark:  would like to have a weekly face to face meeting that can address technical questions.  Email is too hard, too time consuming,  doesn't always work well.  Could be same as PMC meeting, or at least held together.

Tex:  PMC could be more managerial.  Also, distinction between architecture & code issues, which wouldn't necessarily involve  the same people

Deborah:  start with as few meetings as possible, only change if something is not working.

Mark:  PMC biz:  3 offers of resignation, 2 nominations, interest from Eric, Ram & George in being PMC members.   Mark has no problems with a broader PMC, could be as much as all committers.  Also would have no problem with a smaller group.

Vladimir:  any of the developers are fit to be PMC members

Tex:  look to the community of contributors for the direction.  IBM, as the main sponsor, can reasonably want strong representation.

Deborah:  Likes the idea that all major committers would be on the PMC.
Mark suggest refusing the resignations of Vladimir & Markus, add the remaining IBMers.
Doug:  disagrees, should not refuse to accept a resignation.

Tex: uneasy with the size of the change to the PMC, doesn't want to expand & contract at the same time.


Business

Mark:  Moved propose to accept Craig's resignation, and thank him for his contributions.  Doug seconds.  Passed with full consensus.  Mark will send him a note, thanking him.

Mark: moves that it is the general consensus major committers to the project should be on the PMC for now.   Doug seconds.  We have consensus.

Mark moves refusing the resignations of Vladimir & markups, add the remaining IBMers.
Doug:  disagrees, does not think we should refuse to accept a resignation.
Tex: uneasy with the size of the change to the PMC, doesn't want to expand & contract at the same time.
This motions dies.

Mark: propose to accept the resignations, add Andy & Steven, decide later how to fill Craig's spot, how to expand the board.
Doug: would like to see expansion to major users, like Adobe.

Mark: moves:  accept Markus & Vladimir's resignation.  Deborah seconds.  Approved by consensus.

Mark:  moves:  all committers are welcome as observers to PMC meetings.  Deborah seconds.
Tex: The PMC should be able to close a meeting.
Markus:  Impacts ICU core mailing list policy.  
Mark:  Core mailing list becomes available to committers.
Consensus on all of the above changes regarding the status of committers.

Mark Moves Accept nomination of Andy & Steven as PMC members .  Doug seconds.
Accepted by consensus

Tex:  One opening on PMC is left.  
Conclusion, after some rambling discussions:  A public announcement of the PMC opening will be made on the ICU mailing lists.  The announcement will not be made immediately.  By email, come up with a wording for the notice of the open PMC slot, and request nominations.  Final text to be done in a PMC meeting in a month.

ICU 3.6 Features and Schedule

Deborah:  What will be the ICU 3.6 features & schedule, given the changes to the project?
answer:  The schedule remains 8/15/2006.  The feature set is subject to change, due to the project changes.  Further discussion to email.