Thanks, Florian for the long message :-) But, can I request that we have such advocations (not sure that's a word) presented in a more neutral space? My reasoning, besides the obvious, that this is OOo-land, has to do with simply having a suitable forum for what is likely to be a protracted and contentious discussion, and that sort of thing calls out for neutrality.
I also tend to think that having focused and if possible in-person meetings is immensely helpful. Louis On 2011-05-25, at 08:03 , Florian Effenberger wrote: > Hello everyone, > > I have not been subscribed to this list for months, but due to Louis' recent > Cc, I was made aware of the discussion going on -- so, as a representant of > TDF, but also as someone for whom personally the community means a lot, let > me say a few words. > > I indeed see the current situation as an ideal basis for uniting things. The > diversity the Community is in now doesn't help anyone. If you now think we, > TDF, are happy and get satisfaction out of the current situation, you are > terribly wrong. Even if we expected something like that to happen, our > intention was to safeguard the project from this eventuality, not to profit > from it. > > We all have similar goals: a free office suite, available to everyone. So > let's not discuss about the past, about what has happened and about the > reasons that led to this, but rather focus on the future. > > I want to openly repeat our invitation to everyone to join The Document > Foundation and the LibreOffice Community. Why do I think that we are the > right place to continue the work? > > In yesterday's blog post, we summed up where we stand, and reading it will > help to understand the current situation: > > http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2011/05/24/updates-on-the-foundation/ > > 1. We are vendor neutral. I am sorry that I have to object to Louis' > statement of us being a proxy for Microsoft -- nothing can be further from > the truth. I must confess, that by statements like these, I feel even > personally insulted. I spend many hours per day on a pure volunteer basis, > and if anyone can point on those of my doings that are proxying for > Microsoft, I would be interested to hear them. Otherwise, I'll ask to stop > spreading those wrong assumptions -- as they are simply that: wrong. > > 2. We have a strong legal backing, not only by the German nonprofit "Freies > Office Deutschland e.V.", but also by the Software in the Public Interest > (SPI), and we are on track with establishing the Foundation as a legal > entity. Even right now, we have all options needed for dealing with legal > aspects, accepting and spending money. We already can and do maintain > trademarks, brands and other assets. > > 3. We have an independent infrastructure that works and is not controlled by > nor depends on a single entity. In addition, as we are not using a fixed web > framework, we are very flexible in what we do. > > 4. We have not only gained a lot of momentum, but also a strong developer > base of more than 200 volunteers, amongst them 40 who contribute on a very > regular basis. Yes, of course, any contribution corporations with paid > developers do are highly welcome and help a lot -- but already right now, we > are in a status where we could drive the project without them, if the worst > case would occur. This is something we never managed to achieve in ten years' > of OpenOffice.org. > > When I first read the Oracle announcement from April, talking about an > independent, noncommercial entity, my first thoughts were -- and still are -- > "this is exactly what TDF is doing". I have seen proposals of setting up > another foundation, or moving to an existing foundation that is not TDF. > Honestly, this does not make very much sense to me. It would again lead to a > diversity, would require many efforts, and would continue to irritate the > market at large. > > Why reinvent the wheel? OpenOffice.org is already very special in many of its > processes. Having it under the umbrella of another, existing entity, would > require lots of changes to fit in there. TDF has, from the very beginning, > been shaped as a new entity with processes that fit to what we have > accomplished the last years. We changed things that didn't work, and improved > things that do work -- isn't this the best basis to build on? Let's not waste > energy in once again trying to fit under an umbrella, but rather work jointly > together on our future. > > I am not saying that TDF does everything right and 100% perfect. We are > giving our best, and I think we do a fairly good job. I've seen comments that > TDF is missing big corporate support, and that the whole ecosystem is at > risk. Again, I consider this terribly wrong. Of course, we would love to have > much more support from corporations already, but building this up needs time, > requires trust and confidence, and after all, support is growing rapidly. If > anyone thinks by setting up a new foundation or by doing a few phone calls > you can get big corporate support, I must say that almost sounds delusionary. > And does it really make sense that in the future, two entities will try that > out? Wouldn't it be much better to speak united, with one voice? > > In my letter of resignation last October > (http://www.mail-archive.com/dev@marketing.openoffice.org/msg11691.html), > I've said that I am looking forward to talking again about options to > cooperate. I feel that time has come now. > > So, I would be really interested of what actually prevents from cooperating > with TDF, and uniting once again. Are there any valid reasons? Let's leave > out what happened in the past -- a lot of bad words have been said, but > digging into that does not help. > > What compelling reasons are there to not work together again, in one > Community? > > TDF is there, TDF is open, and to me, it would be the ideal home of a united > Community. The decision about that requires no leader, but you, anyone of > you, can make it on your own. > > Our future can be bright. Let's make it together. > > Florian > > -- > Florian Effenberger <flo...@documentfoundation.org> > Steering Committee and Founding Member of The Document Foundation > Tel: +49 8341 99660880 | Mobile: +49 151 14424108 > Skype: floeff | Twitter/Identi.ca: @floeff > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe send email to dev-unsubscr...@marketing.openoffice.org > For additional commands send email to sy...@marketing.openoffice.org > with Subject: help -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to dev-unsubscr...@marketing.openoffice.org For additional commands send email to sy...@marketing.openoffice.org with Subject: help
