Thanks for asking, Talli.
"as we move towards implementing a governance model.."
First, is the word "governance" a hinderance to managing the development of a tool set? Governance implies authority by power and control. Granted, the authority would be benevolent, perhaps some others, like myself, may be concerned about authority for authority's sake. Authoritarian positions attract the types of personalities that are incompatible with goals (other than stagnation and decay).
The OpenACS community is full of bright participants. There must be another word that better fits the function: Core-mangement? For starters, "management" is obscure and flexible enough to fit the model regardless of structure or process. Still, there must be other words that fit better.
"what are the traits of people who we want to lead the community?"
I'm partial to traits consistent with "servant leadership" which describes current leadership dynamics (as I see them). Leading is not necessarily authoritarian (top-down), but found by inspiring others to participate and learn through a kind of nonspecific expert mentoring (expert hierarchy), where sometimes the student is the teacher.
"What kinds of skills should they have?"
listening skills are as important as computing and conventional leadership skills.
"How should we encourage newbies to get involved?"
how about creating the forums previously discussed? (admin, end-user/marketing/advocacy)
"How do we accept newbies into the community?"
Auto accepted (like anonymous ftp). Only rejected when behavior is harmful to community ie spamming, trolling etc.
"Most importantly, who buys the beer?"
What if someone doesn't drink beer, but eats bread soaked in it, and cooked like porridge (beerbread)? It takes all kinds to create something really great and improve on it (translation for Essa types: diversity in community leads to continual innovation, a key aspect of a competing knowledge/learning community)
This food talk is making me hungry. Time for some fruit porridge covered with a "healthy" layer of whipping cream. Followed by a thick cup of coffee.
cheers,
Torben
