Fedora Project Board Starts into 2010

With Red Hat developer Colin Walters, the last open position on the Fedora board has been filled. John Poelstra, who was appointed to the board by chair Paul Frields in June of 2009, nevertheless regretted in his blog the less than enthusiastic participation of the board. Halfway through his term, he writes, he wanted to evaluate its accomplishments. The two big themes were the Fedora trademark (as we reported) and the question of Fedora's mission, vision and target audience. Poelstra opened the discussion on the board mailing list in October 2009 after the issues apparently emerged in a board meeting shortly before.

The question "What is Fedora?" resulted in a number of responses, but Poelstra was disappointed that only half the board participated in the discussion and their regular conference calls showed only minimal interest in the issue. He hoped for a stronger leadership from board: "This isn't to say these ideas and leadership can't come from others in Fedora. It is great when they do. Ultimately though, the Fedora Board is accountable for providing a vision for the future [...] It is what we have been appointed or elected to do."

The Fedora board membership consists of five elected and four appointed members recommended by Red Hat and decided upon by the chair, who also has veto power. The last election took place in December 2009, when Chris Tyler and Matt Domsch were reelected. Appointed member Christopher Aillon's term was also extended for another year at the same time.

Interestingly the project released a questionnaire with some fanfare at the time of the December elections to help voting members decide. In other ways the history of the board leaves the impression that Red Hat is continuing to recruit from within. Tyler and Aillon were both previous members. Eight of the nine board members are Red Hat coworkers, with Tyler, as Canadian professor, the only exception.