Status Update #6 -- June 5, 2003

1. 0.2 Planning.

In the last status report I noted the high level goals for the Chandler 0.2 release. These days there is a focused effort to list the tasks necessary to meet these goals and do a “bottoms-up” schedule for these tasks. Once we have this we’ll be able to tell how much too much we’ve tried to bite off for 0.2 and revise accordingly. It’s not done yet, but we hope to have something shortly. The developers hope this as much as you do, since planning and scheduling is no one’s favorite task. Meanwhile Michael is working out the process we will use for defining 0.2 and getting it out the door. Hopefully the process will be good enough to use for 0.3 as well. If Michael is magical, he’ll also make more hours in the day and finish going through the open issue briefs and figure out what if anything needs immediate attention.

2. Bi-weekly �milestone� releases.

One decision that has been made is to do �milestones� every two weeks. We distinguish the �milestones� from �dot releases.� Dot releases (0.1, 0.2, etc.) are a bigger deal, will be better tested, include non-code deliverables (like documentation) and will be far more polished. The milestone releases will be low overhead releases; their main purpose is to serve as a project management tool. In other words, to allow developers to say something will or won't be in the next milestone, to stop and evaluate whether the things planned for a milestone are actually in them, and to see if the new code causes unexpected problems. We have not yet decided what degree of testing will be done on the milestone releases. Obviously the milestones need to run. Morgen is working on a unit test framework, to be followed shortly afterwards by the actual unit tests. We also expect to have some basic �smoketests� so users can check whether basic functionality works. The smoketests won�t cover every possible action; they are aimed at basic functionality. We don�t have a list of smoketests yet, so this is an area where someone could help. The first milestone build is planned for June 17. We�ll post the builds as soon as we know that they work.

3. Data Model. Now that Andi�s here, there�s a lot of thinking about the data model in the works with John, Brian, and Katie as well as Andi focusing on this. This is a high priority item, as it it blocks progress of the repository and the data schema for Chandler�s core PIM functionality. Once there is a working consensus, the suggestions will be written up as a proposal, reviewed and revised as necessary. The result should be a list of the data-representation features that Chandler will have. The list may impact design of many parts of Chandler --- the database code, the repository API, the query language, RAP, the Python-binding code for the data model, and the Chandler PIM data schema. We�ve also given Andi all of one week (J) to figure out his tasks related to object persistence tasks for the 0.2 release, so he�s a very busy guy.

4. RSS feeds for OSAF.

In a burst of creative energy, Pieter decided to improve our ability to highlight new information on our website and wiki. He�s creating an "What's New" web page that includes RSS feeds with pointers to articles on the OSAF website, Chandler Wiki and Mitch's weblog. This will allow folks to come to an OSAF web page and see what's new or use their own RSS aggregator/reader to pull the information. Let us know if this is helpful.

5. Community Plan.

I’ve posted some thinking about community development, including a general outline of topics, a description of Roles and Responsibilities (what does it mean to be OSAF “staff” anyway?), and a description of the kinds of tools that would help non-staff participants get deeply involved, which are linked from the outline.

6. Hiring.

Hiring remains a priority. We have three open positions: Email specialist, Graphic and Interaction Designer, and Security Developer. Details can be found at http://www.osafoundation.org/employment.htm.

7. O�Reilly Open Source Conference.

In addition to Mitch�s keynote, there will be a presentation on Chandler on Thursday at 2:30, and a Chandler BOF on Thursday evening.

-- MitchellBaker - 05 Jun 2003