(I'm not sure why followup was intended for dev-identity, as -governance is the correct group for module creation/change discussions.)
In general I'm in favour of having explicitly identified scope and leadership over this project, and I'm glad we're being up front about who is responsible for making the big calls here. However, I have two significant concerns with the proposed structure, wearing my Module Ownership hat: * Scope A long time ago we discussed a similarly broad module for services, and it was argued quite convincingly that we should not attempt to create a module stretching across multiple client and server products with diverse codebases. The primary reason is that the skill set and domain expertise to write highly scalable and available services differs in significant ways from the ability to write robust and performant Firefox client code. I'm not suggesting one person cannot do both, but that most people will do one or the other. I would prefer to see a separation of concerns here, in order to foster stronger leadership on both client and server code. The right size of a module, in my experience, is where the owners and peers have a strong understanding of the module as a whole, and I'm not convinced this would meet that criteria. * Experience working on Firefox In general, it is expected that the owners (and their peers) of any code module expected to ship in Firefox have significant experience and knowledge of the Mozilla codebase as a whole. We are long past the days of using super-review as a check against inexperienced (or just plain incompetent, as in the Netscape days) module owners, so it is critical that any client module have strong and experienced technical leadership. Based on that requirement, we have in the past left modules unowned rather than appoint a relatively inexperienced owner, so I'm quite reluctant to sign off on a client-impacting module without experienced Firefox or Gecko hackers involved. I think we have room to be creative about how we involve some of those strong hackers, and the goal is not necessarily to permanently include them, but I want to feel confident that we are creating a strongly owned module that will ship Firefox-quality code. One option that comes to mind is to have all changes/code meant to ship in Firefox would need to be reviewed (not super-reviewed, which is more limited) by a member of super-reviewers. This would continue until that group felt confident that the actual owners/peers were ready to operate without that oversight, after which we would revert to standard super-review requirements like nearly every module. -- Mike On 2013-01-28, at 11:12 PM, Ben Adida wrote: > > (cc dev-platform and governance, followup on dev-identity) > > Hi all, > > After initial discussions with Brendan and Mitchell, I'm proposing a new > module, Identity Attached Services. > > https://wiki.mozilla.org/Modules/Other#IdentityAttachedServices > > This module covers server-side code and some client-side code to integrate > into Firefox (Desktop, Android, and OS) services tied to the user's identity. > The immediate goal is to give users access to their core browsing experience > (bookmarks, tabs, passwords, apps, contacts, and history) once the user has > authenticated using Persona/BrowserID. This is, essentially, a rethink of FX > Sync with a mobile-first view, adding important features such as backup. > > Of importance: where this module overlaps with existing modules, design input > and eventual code reviews will be needed from all relevant module > owners/peers. > > Initial UX and product design, as well technical prototyping, has begun, as > described: > > https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/mozilla.dev.identity/UqSbLDedyUM > > The codename for this work is currently "MyFirefox". > > I look forward to your thoughts/comments/questions! > > -Ben > _______________________________________________ > governance mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
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