Hi all, Simon Brouwer wrote (28-09-10 09:43)
What do you make of this? OpenOffice.org Community announces The Document Foundation The community of volunteers developing and promoting OpenOffice.org sets up an independent Foundation to drive the further growth of the project [...]
Please allow me to use your question as a step to explain how I feel and think in the current situation.
Since back in 2004 I got in contact with OpenOffice.org, I learned to love its concept and qualities. Since then, I've been working with the product, with customers and in the project and really appreciate the goodies and many of the people I learned to know who work on OpenOffice.org.
A really big chunk of all the work has always been sponsored by Sun Microsystems, since recent Oracle. I am grateful for that and understand and respect decisions that they make from their perspective, a company with it own business challenges and policy. There have always been areas in the project, where improvement is possible. I work on that as far as it is within my means - which is rather limited - and have never been shy to share my criticism, private or in public. Just as I like to share my optimism and compliments for the goodies.
Over the years, also in my role as community representative in the Community Council, I have seen more and more people in the community feel unhappy and become disinterested from decisions that were made without them, invisible for them and do not fit in the way they believe the project would work best. Decisions however that for me are so well understandable from the main sponsors business perspective. This is a very sad collision of worlds and interests. Healing this situation is IMO very important for the future of the project.
Therefore, for me, The Document Foundation is a logical next step for a future of the project, the product. It cures the situation explained above, where main sponsors decisions can (and do) alienate other community members. Thus it is the base for a wider support and better understanding in the non-corporate and volunteer community. And because it will better serve the mutual interests of more big sponsors and thus will lead to more people working on the project. This is a long standing wish from many of us: a faster evolving and better product. I believe and wish that also the Oracle team around OpenOffice.org can gain from this new situation.
As always, I like to cooperate and will, obviously at least partly in a different form, continue to do so.
Kind regards, Cor -- - giving openoffice.org its foundation :: The Document Foundation - --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: discuss-unsubscr...@openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: discuss-h...@openoffice.org
