Backwards development

[Mark Côté]

On 2015-11-20 11:15 AM, Denis Roy wrote:
> Perhaps if Bugzilla is serious about being an independent software
> project, it should consider moving to an independent software
> foundation. As it stands, Mozilla is not living up to its manifesto wrt.
> Bugzilla, specifically:
> 
> 08 Transparent community-based processes promote participation,
> accountability and trust.
> 
> https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/

Again, the Bugzilla project is not administered by Mozilla.  Mozilla
supports it by providing some resources.  Coincidentally there are some
Mozilla employees active in the Bugzilla community, but the two are
functionally separate.  Creating a software foundation for the Bugzilla
project is a great idea, particularly if it would involve funding to
employ a product manager and, ideally, some developers.  It would also
be a large amount of work, and I don't know anyone at the moment who
would want to lead that.

As for Mozilla's manifesto, I don't think Bugzilla fits into Mozilla's
mission at all, which is reflected by it being a separately governed
project.  Maybe it did early on, when the web was young and every
open-source web application Mozilla created helped drive the web
forward.  In my opinion, that is no longer the case--there are a vast
number of open-source web applications, and so the web apps that Mozilla
continues to create and maintain mainly act in a supporting role for
Mozilla's mission.  This includes BMO specifically, which is an
important tool for projects that are directly related to our mission
(Firefox, Webmaker, etc.).

I became an Assistant Project Lead for the Bugzilla project, independent
of my role as a manager on Mozilla's Engineering Productivity team,
because I wanted to revive the community, hoping we could develop a more
productive relationship between Bugzilla and BMO.  I was pretty naive
about the scope of that work.  There is indeed plenty more the Bugzilla
community could do to revive the project, but at some point I had to
admit that the amount of effort and time I would have to put in would
not have a commensurate impact for Mozilla.  It is a frustrating and
disappointing situation.

Mark

_______________________________________________
dev-apps-bugzilla mailing list
dev-apps-bugzilla at lists.mozilla.org
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-apps-bugzilla