Summary
Today, members of the Fedora Council, Mindshare Committee and FESCo met to discuss the Innovation Lifecycle proposal. This proposal is intended for 2 - 5 year pieces of work that does not fit a standard Change Proposal (typically, but not always, tied to a specific release) and requires a space and a set of criteria to test against for suitability for the Fedora Project as a whole. This meeting followed a lengthily conversation in the Fedora Council matrix room where people found themselves with different understandings on the purpose of the proposal, who the decision makers of sandbox entry were and why, and a few other things that emerged in general that we need to iron out independently of the proposal. As a first step towards getting alignment on the proposal, members of Council, FESCo and Mindshare worked to agree to an overall flow of how an entry to the Sandbox could be granted.
Outcomes from the meeting:
Workflow for Entry Evaluation
0. The proposer must start an informal notice that you want to talk about your project going into the lifecycle process. What the venue is for this is yet to be defined (see tooling).
1. When the proposal team is ready, they open a ticket with Council with a formal sandbox proposal and a requirements document populated with their understanding of necessary requirements informed by the community feedback they received in the prior step.
2. Council will review the ticket and may ask the proposers to continue the informal discussion process with guidance on project stakeholders to talk with and close the ticket with the expectation that proposers will re-open after additional informal discussion. Otherwise Council will post an official Sandbox Entry Proposal post to discourse. The post marks the start of a formal 2-week community comment period
3. After two weeks, Council picks up after that period for discussion.
4. Council votes on a conditional approval of “can this go into sandbox”, primarily on strategic merit for the project
5. Once conditional approval is received, the proposer must then open a ticket with FESCo and Mindshare, knowing one or the other might not be relevant, but for awareness and acknowledgement anyway.
6. Formal requirement gathering and review begins with both groups, with input from Council if needed.
7. FESCo and Mindshare vote on feasibility; if rejected, proposer goes back to Council and works out a new iteration, and resubmits for review.
8. Once approved by Fesco and Mindshare and all requirements are agreed to, a sandbox approval is reached, and sandbox begins.
Timeboxing
The group discussed what kind of timeboxing, if any, would be appropriate for this process, and at what points. Consensus was reached on the following:
- The process is open-ended, ie it is not restricted to specific times in the calendar year for ideas to be submitted by
- The initial socializing of the idea (point 0, or pre-step) has a minimum of two weeks, but the true length of time on the initial discussion may vary depending on activity and interest.
- Voting timeframes by Council, FESCo and Mindshare are subject to the normal operating rules of each group. This may mean that Council may require a minimum of 2 weeks, and FESCo may only require 1 week to return a vote on a sandbox entry ticket. These are minimum times and will be subject to the feedback received and addressed at the time of entry evaluation.
Treatment of Feedback
It is expected that any large-scale idea that wants to be proposed for entry to the sandbox will have sufficient time to discuss their idea(s) in a fair and respectful way within the Fedora Community, both in the socializing period (point 0) and during the reviews at Council, FESCo and Mindshare.
It is also expected that members of FESCo, Mindshare and Council will try to engage early (and sometimes often) in the socializing part of the idea, so that the proposers have time to consider points of concern that are raised ahead of the formal submission to request entry to sandbox. The requirements document that is submitted as part of the formal request for entry should capture any feedback received in this early phase.
Outstanding Items:
- Define how to avoid Infinite loops/griefing (step 7)
- Decide on tooling for the process (eg discourse for post, repo on forge for filing issues, etc)
- Identify a way to ensure FESCo and Mindshare are made aware of sandbox ideas at the time of socializing.
- Clarify what a good idea or fit is for sandboxing. What do we mean by ‘strategic’.
Next Steps
There are still a number of TODO items that require dedicated meeting time for (see above). The group today agreed that the next working session will focus on solving how to avoid Infinite Looping/grieving. There is another working session scheduled for Thursday, 10 September 2026 @ 1400 UTC. Meeting details are in fedocal. All are welcome to join, however please note participation is restricted to members of Council, FESCo and Mindshare in the interest of making meaningful progress.