This thread is pushing buttons that haven't been pushed in a while... but they have certainly been pushed before (in the mailing lists, if you like history). Unfortunately this will bring out more of my jaded attitude towards various things... ;)
Right now Apache OFBiz is fairly mature (no huge gaping holes needing to be filled as was the case for the first 5-6 years of the project), and being part of the ASF is currently operated in a legitimate and respectable and proper... bureaucracy. Being led in a bureaucratic way it is beyond the realm of influence by doers. At this point the only form of leadership that will work is by those who have survived the world of business by getting other people to do what they want because they could not do it themselves. The project now needs someone who thrives on dealing with complaints because that is the primary form of currency in bureaucracies (well, aside from actual currency, but being an open source project with no armed tax and fee policy enforcers there isn't a lot of that around). Now assuming such a person were in place and accepted by the PMC and committers and a proper leader... what is the direction the project should go? What should it commit to and on what timeline? Who should decide on the direction and the timeline? In short: 1. Who decides on the objective(s)? 2. How do you get other volunteers to play along, and commit to a timeline? 3. What objectives would we pursue in OFBiz at this point in its life? -David On Jan 25, 2011, at 3:43 AM, Pierre Smits wrote: > IMO, marketing has to do with managing (and steering) expectations. For the > generally accepted explanation, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing > > Marketing OFBiz to either the development community or others will always be > an uphill battle, when you don't have a plan. And I think that is the > underlying issue. More on this later... > > Since 2006 I have followed the mailing lists (all of them of OFBiz), > reacting on entries there, occasionally created awareness for issues (by > registering them in JIRA) and providing patches and improvements. Like all > of us I have only limited time available for OFBiz (the project), as it is > not the source of income. > > And I see a lot of involved and enthousiast persons doing the same as I do. > When feeling a pain with OFBiz (the product) I try to take the pain away. > And if there is time to spare I bring back to OFBiz (the community). Without > any (perceived) commitment or responsibility. The general approach seems to > be: 'Yes, it will happen when it happens'. I even see committers taking this > further: plemping code straight into the trunk (or removing from) without > prior consensus of the community, and then thumping their chests and > hailing (marketing) their prowess. > > Is this how it's supposed to be in this project/communtiy? > > Back to the underlying issue. > I have come to believe that OFBiz is a project without a plan. Yes, we have > the marketing documents (about the product, project and the community > members), but only about what is/was and what has happened. But we have > nothing to say about what is going to be or happen. Maybe on an individual > (member) level to an individual customer (group). But not as WE the > community/project. And this should change if we want to able give more > praise, business, etc to our members. How can we get new followers and old > interested when we can't even say: > > Look guys. This is what we are working on and it *will* be available at such > and such moment. Please come back here to check on our progress and other > plans. > > Journalists and other followers are looking for this. And this is what we > have to do and do it regularly. > But we can't do this when we don't have a clue what is going to happen with > the product and project. We can only comment vaguely about what is happening > in JIRA and in mailing lists. But not about the way forward. And not to loud > as it might bite us in the behind. > > Maybe it is time for a change. But another change than implementing yet > another wheel (or bathtub) on the car. Or replacing one working wheel with > another. > > Regards, > > Pierre Smits
