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

[Stephen Kelly]

Jos Poortvliet wrote:

> I think the flexibility of being a bit vague
> means we all can give meaning to it, make it shared but also our own. That
> is the power of a vision, the part that makes it unite - encompassing bit
> personal. Of you spell out each part, what 'everyone' means, what 'full'
> means, 'digital', 'life'... We have a book, not a sentence.

This fits my understanding too. It should be so vague that anyone could 
mistake it for the vision of a different organization.

> If YOU get what it means and can explain it to somebody; and it feels like
> it means what you want KDE to be; then it is good. Stop thinking about
> corner cases, it is neither law nor code :-)

Yeah! The only purpose of a vision is to be inspirational.

> Honestly I think we can keep discussing it to the end of the world but it
> won't get much better: we are a diverse community, but giving people
> control over their digital lives, with all the different things it means
> for different people - it is what binds us and makes for a great vision.

Yeah!

> Just think about neon - make a list of 5 reasons why it shouldn't be a KDE
> project, easy. But then look at the vision: does it help people (a certain
> group, in this case, Ubuntu users) achieve and more control over their
> privacy, their desktop etc? It does, so, while we can and should have more
> criteria than 'just' a vision, it IS something which binds us.

This part of your email seems really out of scope to me. 

A vision is not a tool. It is especially not a tool for deciding things 
like 
whether something fits in KDE. Look to a mission for that. The vision 
should 
be 'useless' and 'not helpful to decide anything at all'. 

It should not 'define what KDE is' or be helpful for defining that, or 
anything along those lines.

The only reason to have a vision is to be inspired by it. Trying to use it 
for other things is a mistake IMO.

Thanks,

Steve.