Talk:Viewpoint Advocacy Groups

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  • I am actually very serious about the slight rename of V.A.G. to V.A.T., as light-handedly discussed on the group chat. Dzonatas Sol 16:13, 11 October 2007 (PDT)
Could you elaborate on the reason for the name change? I see the comment "to keep focus of the right direction, keep in mind about COST, and avoid bureaucracy" but don't quite understand how the name change accomplishes this. --Burhop Piccard 17:56, 11 October 2007 (PDT)
It implies a meaning from recent events, which are significant; however, the name change alone is not a complete solution. It is a minimal change to influence the discussion. The serious point being task focused and cost effective. The Tao Of Linden already points out the need to not be political. Zero also reiterated about the need to have no ego in code. The emphasis of "groups" and "core AWG" can easily be a politicized medium, and we want to avoid that. We need to stay a team altogether. In AWG chat, we found the intention is not to actually form (sub)groups, but the intent is more to (to quote the article), "Document rationale for architectural decisions" and "Work with the core goals to document views and requirements that conflict or are inconsistent." It is inconsistent and political to form more subgroups to do what the AWG already does. JIRA is an example of a better medium then subgroups -- create tasks and subtasks. Again, COST is not something I've seen discussed. COST is an influence here. In fact, a good example of a use case is the recent event between Europe and non-EU currency transactions. Hmm, what's a good way to say it with too many details... look at ArchWG_Mtg_1_Slides and create an analogy of "mainland" to the U.S. -- and remember that the pipe between US and EU is limited. Then you'll get the notion that the "V.A.G." (as previous defined) IS the AWG. The question becomes, why change it from "A.W.G" to "V.A.G."? Dzonatas Sol 19:07, 11 October 2007 (PDT)
  • I very much support the idea of working on tasks, rather than belonging to a group. I intend to work on (or have an interest in) numerous tasks, maybe all of them to some degree, so group membership isn't a very helpful concept in this. --Morgaine Dinova 23:21, 11 October 2007 (PDT)
  • Dzonatas' point about "groups" vs "core AWG" potentially creating a dangerous politization is very important. By placing all concerns into their own VA task groups, including those who some feel are "core", the entire structure is flattened and all choices have to be justified equally. The "core" tasks (and the groups working on them) will then no longer be special, but simply represent those concerns that we have agreed on a priori, like using REST. This is a much cleaner and less adversarial project structure, in my view. --Morgaine Dinova 23:32, 11 October 2007 (PDT)
  • I've just realized that we're editing in User:Gigs space at the moment. You might as well promote it to main namespace. It's not like on Wikipedia where you'll get 500 people screaming blue murder at you. ;-))) There weren't any dissenting voices in the AWGroupies chat against this, nor competing ideas. --Morgaine Dinova 08:54, 13 October 2007 (PDT)
  • It was moved from V.A.G. to V.A.T. back to V.A.G., which shows a concern. Also, Gigs stated below "These aren't tasks" where in group chat I thought we agreed on the task perspective. That doesn't seem true (anymore?). This seems like the best place to work with this idea. We've had other pages moved to users pages on this wiki, so this is doing just likewise. Dzonatas Sol 09:22, 13 October 2007 (PDT)

Groups

To be clear, we ARE talking about groups here. We have groups of stakeholders with their own concerns. These aren't tasks, they are groups.

You all mention "politicization" ... Groups of people will want certain things, depending on what their stake is. Trying to deny that is just going to lead to a lot of useless bickering. This is supposed to be a framework for various groups to advocate their viewpoint and to ensure that their requirements are met as best we can.

It's supposed to be slightly adversarial, in the same sense that a prosecuting attorney and a defense attorney are adversarial. It doesn't mean they can't go have dinner together after the trial, or even switch roles in the next trial. We are all working toward the same end, but that doesn't mean we all need to advocate the same viewpoints.

Membership in one of these groups isn't exclusive, and there's no reason one person can't be a member of more than one group, or a member of one of these groups and also of the core team. In that sense it isn't polarizing, since there's nothing preventing participation anywhere that someone wants to participate. It's merely a construct to provide a way of thinking about stakeholder groups, their needs, and integrate them into the design.

I'm renaming this back to groups.

Gigs Taggart 11:47, 12 October 2007 (PDT)

These groups should have their own meetings, and produce their own output. This allows for a finer grained focus than one huge group with many stakeholders all trying to pull the group in their own direction. I expect most of these subgroups to be from 3-7 people. This is an ideal size for actually getting things accomplished. Larger groups are REALLY BAD at getting anything done. Gigs Taggart 11:58, 12 October 2007 (PDT)
  • I think this is a fine idea. I like the idea of having organized groups feed in specific use cases and requirements, rather than a central group needing to do a ton of heavy lifting. I don't think Linden Lab can facilitate all of this, but we certainly don't want to obstruct it. -- Rob Linden 12:59, 12 October 2007 (PDT)
  • I support these well-focussed viewpoint groups because they can help reduce arguing over a single spec document, and therefore raise the spirit of collaboration. :-)
As you say, it can be seen as slightly adversarial, but I put quite a different slant on it because of my past history: engineering requirements are ALWAYS in conflict with each other, and therefore require cooperative assessment and calm, professional tradeoffs to be made. These viewpoint groups allow us to approach that structurally, but only if the structure is flat and the playing field level. One issue illustrates this: we've already seen some people express that their concerns and work are so "core" that they don't even need to describe a viewpoint because "core" overrides everything else. That approach does not create an atmosphere of collaboration, which is why I want everyone to buy into your idea rather than consider themselves above it. --Morgaine Dinova 07:58, 13 October 2007 (PDT)
Nothing is above the VAGs. The VAGs will review the work output of the core group in every way. If the core group is proposing something that a particular VAG can come up with a coherent critique on, then that should be reexamined. Gigs Taggart 22:57, 13 October 2007 (PDT)

"Eat your own dog food"

I can already see the politics started with "groups" and this is one area we don't need those kind of politics. Even as Rob suggested that LL does not have the means to facilitate. If you want groups Gigs, I suggest you document this more -- "eat your own dog food." I believe there is enough on the front article to know what to include when you write your viewpoint. At this time it is not complete enough, and it be better to have more to understand each other rather than wheel war about it. I think I've written more on this discussion than what you wrote in the article, and maybe that should say something in itself, especially if I continued into further details. I'm looking for your details of your viewpoint. What I changed into "tasks" is the attempt to use modern technology that is already provided to achieve the same goal without the politics, but you don't see that. Dzonatas Sol 07:44, 13 October 2007 (PDT)

  • I don't mind either way. The viewpoints are the central idea here (and I didn't invent that). Of course the people gathered around a viewpoint form a group. And what they do is a task. But it's not worth arguing about the name. Just get everyone to subscribe to one or more viewpoints (very lightweight!!), and all will be fine. :-) --Morgaine Dinova
  • Yes, it can be very simplified in that view. Modern technology allows easy subscription and *bam* you have the groups automatically behind it. I see no reason to actually define the groups, but there is reason to define the tasks and worry about cost. Dzonatas Sol 08:09, 13 October 2007 (PDT)
  • Good point about cost. I'll add that to the general template that's emerging for defining viewpoints. "Regions on Mars" might denote an interesting viewpoint, but its cost field might have some bearing on its viability. ;-))) --Morgaine Dinova 08:18, 13 October 2007 (PDT)