Hello, I just wanted to chime in a little bit about the importance of a project like this. Although I don't have enough time to properly mentor this project I hope others will think about doing so. I even debated why I was spending the time writing this email. If others do not volunteer I will try to make the time to help ensure it at least has a chance.
Initially I ignored the proposal after a quick read. It seemed completely unrelated to the technical topics I've been interested in. It seemed more of a completed product that some folks wanted to push here. As a result I felt it may take far too much effort to make those involved really understand the Apache way. It just did not feel like my cup of tea. I don't know just how much effort this will take but regardless I think the expenditure is well worth it for the sake of being able to collaborate better as a community and for the world as well. We created tools like ant and maven here because they facilitate our processes but this tool is no different. Perhaps no, it is more essential since it provides the element which a community needs most: collaboration. This project is well worth any effort we can spare because it can help further collaboration, education and other distributed activities around the world. It can o bring distant people together to form communities o save time, money, and energy (literally fuel) when people no longer have to travel for school or other activities o reduce pollution and lesson global tensions due to less consumption of limited fossil fuels o make people understand each other better in a world where people often misunderstand each other o further education which seems to be failing to reach or affect the masses - after all democracy does not work without education (because then the idiot sons of the rich run the show - OK that's OT :) ) Really I'm not so much a green guy nor a serious humanist. But it's clear that half of the dependence on fossil fuels would go away if the online collaboration tools worked well enough to develop a culture around their use. If it can help ignite a mass utilization that depends more on online collaboration rather than travel, then I think a global impact can result. Maybe this is a pipe dream but if it has any potential even of reaching a fraction of this pipe dream then it is something worth considering. I just apologize for not seeing this potential earlier. I even discredited the proposal and it's viability. Sorry for that, I was ignorant. Yesterday, I told a friend, "half our problems would go away if we all started using bikes and the Internet." Not referring to porn :). I said this to express my wish for more people in America to be able to telecommute. He triggered what changed my thoughts regarding this project by saying, "yeah but the tools are not there yet to enable people to effectively collaborate online." Tools like this will help OS a great deal: collaboration and community go hand in hand. Furthermore it helps the general populous and my help lead to a better future for our little planet. Let's face it if this place goes to hell in a hand basket then there's not going to be much time for open source projects. If we can save two birds with the same project then let's go for it. Now I'll find a place to hide as I get ridiculed for this post :-). Alex On 10/25/07, Bill Stoddard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Ni Hao, Ting Peng > This is an interesting project. I'm happy to be a mentor if the project > is accepted for incubation. > > How familiar is the Bluesky team with open source development at the > Apache Software Foundation? I'll be in Beijing the week of 12/3. If > you are interested, I can fly to Xi'an on 12/8 and meet with the Bluesky > developers at XJTU and talk about open source development at the ASF. I > must depart Xi'an on 12/11. Let me know if you are interested, I would > really enjoy meeting with you. > > Regards, > Bill > > Ting Peng wrote: > > Hello, everyone! > > > > Now, we are going to move our project BlueSky (Blue Sky Distance > > Collaboration > > System) to Apache Incubator for future development. Its aim is to make > > people under the sky to communicate and share resources with each other > > more easily. When, the system is employed, users can communicated via > > audio/video(computer screen also included) and text at the same time. > > In other words, Multi-Object Multimedia capable makes the system more > > vivid and glamorous. Cosmic Resource Share & Management System is also > > included. It provides unique portal for users to share resources(such as > > multi-object multimedia course ware). It's proposal is at > > http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/BSDCSProposal > > The system has been developed for years, more than 20 persons are > > involved. It is used in distance learning in primary and middle schools > > in China. More than 40,000 students has benefited from it. Our > developing > > website is http://202.117.16.176/ , source code is also available. > > All source code of this project is written by ourselves, no third > > part components are included. > > > > Currently, all developers of "Blue Sky Distance Collaboration System" > > are not native speaker of English. But we don't have any obstacles to > > communicate in English on technical topics. We want to share our work > > with people who is interested in it around the world. We want new > > volunteers to make our team more diverse, active and creative. > > > > For this is our first candidate project to Apache Foundation. We are > > grateful for your ideas! > > > > We are looking forward for your advice! > > > > > > -- > > > > Best regards! > > > > Ting Peng ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > > XJTU-IBM Open Tech. 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