Define GNOME's goals, mission and values
As discussed at the board meeting on 17 June 2019, the board feels that having an explicit statement of GNOME's values would be beneficial to the project.
The initial impetus for this is to enable more effective marketing and engagement, so that we can publicise our values more coherently and effectively, and make them a stronger part of the GNOME identity. However, there are other potential goals for this initiative, and determining exactly what these should be needs to be part of the process.
It remains an open question as to who the best person or group is to take this forward: it could be an individual within the board, an individual who isn't a director, or a team like the engagement team. However, I think we agree that it is in the project's interests to make this happen, and the board should help to make it happen. At the time of writing, we are about to have a new board come into power, so this is probably best treated as a potential work item for 2019-20.
An effective process for defining the "mission statement" could look something like this:
- Initial research and goal-setting
- Collect resources and research around mission statements
- Identify potential uses for the mission statement
- Collect examples of other mission statements
- Define tentative goals for the mission statement
- Define what format the mission statement should have
- Primary research and analysis
- Identify existing materials and resources relating to GNOME's values and goals
- Assemble a group of individuals to act as the voice of the community, conduct interviews
- Conduct competitive and strategic research and analysis: this is possibly a big ask, but it's important to look at the wider picture and look to the future. GNOME's values need to reflect where we want to go as well as where we're coming from.
- Analyse the results from this stage: pick out themes, key ideas
- Exploration and refinement
- Draft potential statements
- Review draft mission statements them with the community panel
- Come up with a final recommendation
- Community consultation
- Present the final recommendation, get feedback, improve the statement
- Ratification and publication