[kde-community] finding a clear vision for KDE - second draft for discussion

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On Mittwoch, 17. Februar 2016 00:01:39 CET Ingo Klöcker wrote:
> > What I want to say, in my opinion a guiding statement like a vision
> > should emphasize the main strengths, the main direction, and doesn't
> > need to be worded as broad so that it really covers every nuance.
> 
> The vision is not a guiding statement, the mission is. It's the mission
> which details/specifies how we intend to fulfill the vision. IOW, the
> mission statement gives the direction you are seeking for. The mission
> statement would probably state that we will write software with focus on
> UI applications to reach this goal.

Yes, Ingo's interpretation of vision and mission fully matches mine. I'd still 
call a vision a "guiding statement", in the way that the goal itself does 
already provide "guidance". It's not a step-by-step guidance, however, that's 
what the mission is for.

> > On Monday, February 15, 2016 22:27:14 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> > > If, say, 10 years down the road, hard- and software is so much
> > > intertwined that we cannot influence the future with software alone
> > > anymore, we don't want people to say "But our vision says we only
> > > do software!".
> > 
> > Since we are talking about technology, especially a fast evolving
> > technology, I'm sure a vision for a technology project could also be
> > updated. :-)
> 
> Yes, but if we can avoid it (by using a broader vision in the first
> place), then we should avoid it. OTOH, the mission is supposed to be
> updated, e.g. if the world around us changes in a way which makes it
> unwise not to start creating hardware to fulfill our vision.

Yes, that's our intention, at least.
The vision is a long-term goal, so why not make our lives easier by defining it 
in a way that reduces the need for updating it?
The mission will change more often, anyway, because the strategy likely has to 
be adapted to changed circumstances or because we might have found that our 
current path isn't bringing us closer to our goal.