Introducing the Flex SDK Community Committee
After the first open forum meeting Adobe hosted I among many of my peers realized that there was something missing from our community. While we are a community of many, we lack any leadership or organization of ourselves. As such I am happy to announce the formation of the Flex SDK Community Committee. I think you will find this group comprises many of the names you already know to be leaders in the community. Many already manage successful open source projects, and all have demonstrated their commitment to this community and its growth.
So let me take a moment to recognize the members of the committee:
- Adam Flater
- Ben Clinkinbeard
- Ben Stucki
- Brian Holmes
- Darron Schall
- David Tucker
- Doug Mccune
- Douglas Knudsen
- Justin Reidy
- Michael Labriola
- RJ Owen
- Ryan Campbell
- Simeon Bateman
- Tink
- Tom Chiverton
- Tom Ortega
- Tony Hillerson
- Tom Gonzalez
The Flex SDK Community Committee works for the betterment of the Flex SDK. We represent the Flex community by proposing concrete and actionable recommendations for Adobe’s consideration, we coordinate community participation in bug voting and patch submissions, and we advocate the adoption of finalized SDK features to the community at large.
–Flex SDK Community Committee
Sounds like a Union for Flex Developers.
Can you help negotiate my salary as well.
Great list.
I wonder how they have been chosen (or how you can get aboard :).
I think it is great that people are getting together, discussing ideas, and giving suggestions to Adobe in an organized manner.
However, the claim that a closed group of self-appointed people are speaking as the voice of the community gives me a slight bit of discomfort.
That said, I think the “FX Dilemna” would make a great round table type discussion on The Flex Show. Any interest?
Yeah, it strikes me a bit weird that ya’ll just kinda appointed yourselves. I can’t think of a better way that wouldn’t lead to disarray, but I know the community isn’t just the famous kids :)
And yeah, to second Jeff’s idea, A round table would be pretty sweet! Would be cool to have 2 Pro and 2 con. and since it’s over Skype, there’s no pinching and eye gouging.
It sounds like the timing of the announcement of the formation of the group may have been a little premature. With the announcement that Adobe wanted to come to a resolution by the end of the week, we wanted to come together with a show of force that we as members of the community were aligned in how we feel about the Fx resolutions. That being said, while we had discussed what role the group would have in the community and how the community at large would participate, none of that was finalized.
As such I took the concerns posted here and opened them up for discussion on the list. You can read the discussion about that here: http://groups.google.com/group/flex-sdk-community-committee/browse_thread/thread/7d2c5ef4877e9592?hl=en The take away is that while we do intend to be a group that works together to resolve and promote issues within flex, we don’t really intend to be “the” group to represent all of the community. To be honest, I think there really should be a community committee and that the members should be ratified by the community. But it appears that the vocal part of the group does not feel this was the intention with this group.
That being said, since this is my soapbox here, I think its pretty odd that people object to how people where placed on the committee. I was supremely impressed by what a wide grouping of people ended up and how from across corporate lines people came together. Sure there may be others who could be included in the initial list, but it has to start somewhere. And the group of people on that list have all gone beyond the call in providing in this community.
Perhaps all this really does come down to a naming problem, but if that is the case (and to pick on jeff and john) what right do you have to call your podcast “The” flex show. Maybe its a flex show? Its not the only podcast that covers flex. Maybe you are the only one to focus on flex alone, but does that give you the right to call yourself “the” flex show? Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. But it proposes an interesting aside to what a name can mean.
All of that aside, my goal with this group and any other group is the promotion and betterment of flex and its community. Even my threats to fork it were the rally to bring the community together and rally for changes in the transparency of the Flex SDK. And while I wont take credit for any of the changes, we have seen quite a few since my original post. I’ll happily chalk that up to timing. But that still means I was on the right track because I was not alone in my protest. And many of the people you see on that list above were the ones who were vocal about needing to make a change. They were the ones that were standing up for what they felt was a bad choice for all of us. And thats why they are on the list of the Flex SDK community committee members.
LOL we’re not “the” Flex Show (emphasis on the ‘e’) we’re “the flex show” LOL, but yeah you might be right, maybe it’s the name. I’m all for you guys leading a charge, to help make Flex better, don’t get me (or Jeff I think, to speak for him) wrong.
I think Adobe’s “openness” is a bit weak, since it’s “we’re open to what you have to say, but not really interested” at least that’s how it’s seemed in the past, so this is a huge step.
I’d love to see a more recognized (by adobe) group that has members beyond the top read blogs and ACE community. You guys rock, and do awesome work, but I think there’s room for less known faces in steering Flex into the future.
Tom and I offered to host a committee meeting back in…. mmm what? Atlanta? Seattle? to be the meet up for the steering committee, so that a wide range of voices could participate, but were told “no thanks”
Sorry if I came across as attacking your efforts Sim, quite the opposite, I think you’re right, you’re on the right track, and to be effective, Adobe needs to give such a body teeth, and I hope that’s what comes of this group, and the offer still stands, free meeting spacer the committee, and I bet we could even get conferencing for those members not physically present, connect too.