getting GEP process going

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Hi,

I created a "gep" module in CVS to try to get moving on the RFP idea. 
I made some executive decisions to get things moving so let me know if 
anyone hates them:

 - called it "GEP" (GNOME Enhancement Proposal) because we want to 
   use it for proposed actions not just requirements documents, 
   and because Jim suggested possible confusion with IETF "RFC" 
   if we call it RFC

 - I established a template to use for these things, to be found in
   the CVS module. It uses HTML to be nicer than plain text, but
   easier than docbook.

 - I did an initial writeup of the GEP process as gep-0.html in CVS,
   and listed Michael as owning it. The writeup is simplified a bit
   from my original "policy.html" on my web site and complicated a bit
   from Michael's short email post earlier.

 - created a gep-announce mailing list.

Here is what I think needs doing to finish up:

 - Do some initial tweaks to fix obvious bugs in the GEP templates and
   the text of GEP 0.

 - Add a GEP 1 and maybe a GEP 2 covering a couple simple technical 
   topics, and fix immediately obvious template bugs 
   in light of those GEPs.

 - We need more "responsible persons" for GEP 0.

 - Set up a script to land the GEPs on the web site somewhere, and
   make "gep.css" in the GEP directory more attractive.

 - mass-subscribe the union of gnome-hackers, desktop-devel-list to
   gep-announce gnome org 

 - Propose GEPs 0, 1, 2 and follow the process as listed in GEP 0 to
   revise/approve/reject them. GEP 0 has a long discussion period
   proposed so that we can try to finish GEP 1 and maybe 2 before
   finalizing the first cut at GEP 0.

Please review gep/template-*.html and gep/proposals/gep-0.html and 
comment.

As Michael noted this will be an opt-in thing for maintainers but
hopefully it will be successful and people will start using it.

Havoc