[Imc-lwg-general] constitution refinement proposal /2

[toni --]

summary:

proposals:

- term PROJECT to substitute FUNCTIONAL ELEMENT
- two types of projects to be recognized (permanent and short)
- term CHARTER to substitue CONSITUTION
- special case of 'subgroups-with-single-short-projects'
  to be recognized and included

On Tue, 26 Feb 2002, Richard Malter wrote:

> and also functional element to
> "Functioning element".

currently we define Functional elements:
"Functional element = any task that furthers the objective of imc-lwg 
and that does not contradict it's constitution."

however, these words can be misleading. our intital argument,
if i remember well, for use of word 'functional' because it has to be
operational - performing desired function, that, we said, reflected 
the notion of 'running code'. 

but let's look at the example of an public event.
it has start and end. it is certanly not 'functioning' after it has
finished. there are many other examples like that. for example, features
subgroup can set itself a task to report on some event. it again, ends at
some point and is not 'functioning' any more.

word that ben used in guideliness that he compiled instead is 'project'.
simplicity rules. the only difference between projects like above
mentioned public event or reporting, and those that are on-going like
documentation, maintenance of technical resources is in lenght.

thinking of term 'project' instead of 'functional elemnet' i come to
conclusion that there are two types of projects:
permanent (documentation,tech) and short (event,report).

i think this describes the actuall situation much better then 'functional
element' does, and the widespread use of term makes it more appealing.
important is that we don't loose the grip on what we want to say by the
common use of the term. i don't think that's the case with term 'project'.
quite contrary. why we didn't think of something as simple as this is
different matter.

so, i proposed use of term "PROJECT" instead of "functional element".

as well, i propose slight change/extention of the definition:

"PROJECT = any task, or set of tasks that furthers the objective of
imc-lwg and that does not contradict it's constitution. We recognize two
kinds of projects: permanent and short. Permanent are those that do not
have an end point, and are ussualy at the core of the working group,
while short have defined end point [examples]"

another proposal is use of term CHARTER instead of CONSTITUTION,
for one simple reason: apart from the fact that these two terms
cross-reference each other, term 'constitution' suggests it's common use
in the context of  government - which is quite different to what we
are trying to do. so let's get rid of the negative conotations that
this terms imposes on us.

> >Propose: change use of term 'subgroup' to 'component group' (that we touched 
> on).

'sub' is accurate (subgroup is within larger group, in our case because
it accepts the charter), 
but suggest certain structure with it's strong conotations of
commons use (which isn't positive at all).

'component' sounds too technical to me. offputing :(
i would prefer keeping sub for now and thiking further about it.

as well, 'functional element' and 'subgroup' can easily be confused.
a subgroup can come into life only to do certain task wich is not a
permanent one and therfore automaticaly stops to exist when the task
is completed. i think that this is closest to how it acctualy happens
and is well explained with above proposal for term 'project'.
as well, this temporary nature of some subgroups give our framework
more dynamics and is in that sense much closer to practice - and will
therfore be more acceptible. 

let's not forget that we are trying to _recognize_ patterns and the model
that they belong to, not to build patterns ourselves. so in that sense,
closer to acctual practice is better. of course, one should never confuse
practice that is benefitial for the whole working group or organization at
large and that that hinders work by others. i think that we need to cover
this case of temporary 'subgroups-with-single-short-projects'.

later,

toni