Fedora Council proposes pausing Community Initiatives

Aoife Moloney has, on behalf of the Fedora Council, posted anannouncement that the Fedora Council is "proposing we pause theCommunity Initiatives process as an official project process"because it has decided the current process is ineffective. It is alsoclosing discussion regarding the AI developer desktopinitiative covered by LWN in May.

The Fedora Objectives/Initiatives framework was never intended as amandatory prerequisite to do the work in Fedora. It supposed to helpby focusing the community on a certain work when needed, not to decidewhat is allowed. The AI developer desktop initiative proposalhighlighted that the Community Initiatives process has failed to serveas a good framework in Fedora where new ideas can surface, receiverespectful feedback, and gain Council support for work that fits theproject's present and/or future. This is something that the Councilmust address.

As a first step, we would like to halt the community initiativeprocess immediately. Existing initiatives in flight (Fedora Forge,Atomic, and Fedora Docs 2026) will continue with full Councilbacking. Their underlying work will be completed as planned in theircurrent timeboxed state, though the administrative framework aroundthem may evolve.As a second step, we would like to work out a new mechanism to allowCouncil to set strategic direction in an open, transparent way thatmore intentionally includes the community voice. We recognise that wehave to be better at being more open in our discussions and decisionmaking.

The council is considering the "sandbox" proposal as analternative or supplement to a process that replaces the CommunityInitiatives.