Hello Juergen and everyone,
While I don't disagree with most of Juergen's conclusions, I would like
to point out that the proposed project is the SOFTWARE we've written for
the mouse, not the mouse hardware itself. To the extent that the
OpenOfficeMouse concept was a marketing scheme, that has become
irrelevant at this point since I have already agreed to the Community's
request to change the name of the hardware as well as the color scheme.
We will be making a public announcement about this in two weeks or so.
We still plan to utilize the mouse as a vehicle for distributing the OOo
application suite and we remain enthusiastic supporters of the
OpenOffice.org Community. And to be honest, I'm still not sure which
misconception amazed me more, the idea that OpenOffice.org was building
mouse hardware or the notion that the mouse only worked with
OpenOffice.org applications.
Anyhow, after reading some of the comments on the proposal, it has
become increasingly clear to me that we of the OpenOfficeMouse
development team have failed to understand some of the differences
between the way the Community projects operate compared to the way other
open source projects do. Our reasoning was extremely simple and
straightforward. We intend to release the software as open source when
it is solid and fully functional, and we know it definitely has utility
for other input devices that go well beyond our little mouse. Since the
Community has a laudable commitment to addressing accessibility issues
and was also contemplating major changes to its user interface at the
time we first contacted John, Florian, and Elizabeth, we thought that
our code might prove useful for at least one, and possibly both, of the
groups working on those things. Essentially, we were thinking, "hey,
this stuff works and if you've got a use for it, then please feel free
to take it." While we do see how the software could be utilized to help
further certain Community goals relating to interfaces, I will not
hesitate to admit that we do not have any grand vision for the best way
the Community can make that happen. So, in light of my improved
understanding of the nature of the various OpenOffice.org projects, I
find that I cannot disagree with those who don't see it as meeting the
parameters of a proper Incubator Project.
So, perhaps the consensus will be that it simply doesn't fit. That's
all right, but in any case, I would like the Community to understand
that the proposal was more a consequence of the mouse than a marketing
scheme for it and that it was mostly driven by our desire to contribute
to a project from which we have derived great benefit.
Thank you,
Theo
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