2010/8/13 Roan Kattouw roan.kattouw@gmail.com:
Yes, this is bad. The problem is that currently, we simply do not have such a list, not even internally. It desperately needs to be compiled and made public. At one point, Tim started a page on officewiki trying to list all dev contractors because he was taken by complete surprise when someone told him he'd been contracting for usability for a few months already. I think I know almost all developers we contract and what they do, but that's only because I proactively stay on top of things by e.g. asking new people who they are and what they do when they appear in the staff channel. Even then, some contractors manage to elude me and I find out about them long after they've been hired.
All contracts go through HR (which currently is only one person, Daniel Phelps). MZMcBride asked me a while ago whether we'd maintain an up-to-date list of comings and goings of all contractors, which I don't think makes sense, simply because many contracts are intentionally short-term engagements without any meaningful community implications (e.g. administrative and in-office support contracts).
However, we can certainly do better in keeping folks in the loop on contracts that have community implications, which includes most tech contracts and of course community dept. contracts. Whether this is through blog updates, a public log page, or by another method, is up to Daniel to figure out, and I know he's working on it, along with a very long list of other things.