Yay! The mockup is so much better.
+1 overall
+1 to the changes to the mission statement, though I'd want to be sure
that Mitch is ok with this (I'll follow up)
+1 to moving what we can to the wiki, a handful of pages likely need to
remain static, in particular:
- jobs
- donors
- people (list of osaf staff)
- osaf contact info
(less sure that the last two should be static)
Cheers,
Katie
Mimi Yin wrote:
Katie delegated her bug to update the OSAF Website to me.
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8408 After taking a
look at the content currently at www.osafoundation.org
<http://www.osafoundation.org>, I've come up with the following proposal.
*
*
*Proposal*
* Since we no longer post announcements to the OSAF website, fill the
'body' of the OSAF homepage with 'About OSAF' copy.
* Move sub-pages that need to be updated to the wiki for ease of
maintenance.
* Bring visual look and feel more in-line with other Chandler Project
/ OSAF web properties.
See http://chandlerproject.org/Notes/OsafHomepage#MockUp - I'm currently
working on an HTML layout.
*Objective of the OSAF website / About OSAF Area?*
1. Prove our existence and legitimize Chandler Project's open source /
non-profit credentials. This includes:
* Contact information
* People
* Corporate FAQ
* OSAF Mission
* OSAF History
* How to give donations. Who's given donations.
* *Add link to OSAF Community?*
2. For many people, osafoundation.org is just a pit stop in their search
for Chandler Project.
* Funnel people to chandlerproject.org
* Make it easy to download Chandler Desktop, sign up for a Chandler
Hub account and download Chandler Server
* Make it easy to get involved and subscribe to our blog and mailing
lists
* Funnel people who want to find documentation to the project wiki
*OSAF Mission + Corporate History = About OSAF*
I think we should combine OSAF Mission and Corporate History into a
single About OSAF page. Much of OSAF Mission is out of date and overlaps
in spirit with the Vision Document.
* Move everything up to 'Build the product'
on http://www.osafoundation.org/mission_statement.htm to 'About OSAF'
* Move everything on http://www.osafoundation.org/OSAF_history.htm to
'About OSAF'
Proposed tweaks to copy below:
*ABOUT OSAF*
*Original '**Our Mission'*
Create and gain wide adoption of open source application software of
uncompromising quality.
/Build an innovative, sustainable alternative application despite market
inertia./
* I think we should remove this. This was written before the flood of
web-based PIM apps.
Carry forward the vision of Vannevar Bush, Doug Engelbart, and Ted
Nelson of the computer as a medium for communication, collaboration, and
coordination.
/Design a new application to manage personal information including
email, appointments, contacts and tasks./
* Change to: Design a new application to manage personal information
including notes, mail, tasks, appointments and events, contacts,
documents and other personal resources.
/Enable information to be shared easily with colleagues, friends, and
family/
* Change to: Enable sharing with colleagues, friends and family. In
particular, meet the unique and under-served needs of small group
collaboration.
/Serve a broad base of users, from casual to technologically advanced/
* Change to: Demonstrate that open source software *can* serve a
general audience in the consumer market.
/Eliminate the requirement for a dedicated server or complex administration/
* Remove
Offer a choice of platforms and full interoperability amongst Windows,
Macintosh, and Linux versions.
Leverage our resources by using an open source model of development.
/Pay fanatical attention to the quality of the user experience./
* Remove. I wonder if this is necessary after all the changes above.
*Proposed 'Our Mission'*
Create and gain wide adoption of open source application software of
uncompromising quality.
Carry forward the vision of Vannevar Bush, Doug Engelbart, and Ted
Nelson of the computer as a medium for communication, collaboration, and
coordination.
Design a new application to manage personal information including notes,
mail, tasks, appointments and events, contacts, documents and other
personal resources.
Enable sharing with colleagues, friends and family. In particular, meet
the unique and under-served needs of small group collaboration.
Demonstrate that open source software *can* serve a general audience in
the consumer market.
Offer a choice of platforms and full interoperability amongst Windows,
Macintosh, and Linux versions.
Leverage our resources by using an open source model of development.
*How we started*
OSAF started in 2001 when Mitchell Kapor began to investigate the
possibility of developing a modern Personal Information Manager using
open source tools and methods.
*Decades of design*
One of Mitch’s passions has been designing software applications that
people can use in everyday life - tools that enhance the organization
and retrieval of important information. Beginning almost two decades
ago, he was instrumental in the design of a variety of landmark personal
and business productivity tools including the first programmable
spreadsheet (Lotus 1-2-3), a new kind of database optimized for entering
small items of information in a free-form manner and adding
organizational categories on-the-fly (Lotus Agenda), and a blindingly
fast retrieval tool that indexed everything on the hard drive (On Location).
Through his several decades of work as entrepreneur, CEO, angel
investor, and venture capitalist, Mitch retained his passion for making
useful software, and accumulated a major backlog of innovative ideas for
new software products.
But the development and adoption of innovative solutions in important
areas of software has become quite difficult. One such area is that of
desktop productivity applications, an area which encompasses a number of
Mitch's most interesting ideas. Development costs are high, distribution
channels are limited, and barriers to entry are significant. The chance
is small that the traditional venture-capital-backed model of software
development will fill this need.
*The right time for an alternative software development model*
The Linux operating system has demonstrated that freely shared,
collaboratively developed system software can gain critical mass and
become a viable, even preferred, alternative to traditional proprietary
software. The opportunity exists for the same thing to happen in the
applications space, and OSAF was created to pursue this vision. Mitch
found the idea of making something which would be freely shared and
improved upon extremely compelling. The right product, developed in this
way could have a chance to make a significant impact in the world.
In the spring of 2001, Mitch initiated a limited experiment by hiring a
consulting group to prototype a couple of the key ideas. The results
were both exciting and encouraging, and so, in the summer of 2001, he
took the plunge. He committed to open source and hired the first
employee of a fledgling non-profit, the Open Source Applications
Foundation, with the mission to create and gain wide adoption of open
source application software of uncompromising quality. In February 2002,
OSAF obtained Federal 501(c)3 nonprofit status.
*Why a non-profit? *
Mitch, the successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist, had not all
of a sudden ceased to believe in the virtues of capitalism. Rather, he
wanted to make a clear statement: the intent of this effort was not to
use this as a vehicle to make more money for himself. However, he would
be very happy for others to make money and intended to find a licensing
scheme which would permit both non-commercial and commercial development
on the code base.
*Updated 'Today'*
As of 2007, OSAF has a staff of 25 contributors and is working furiously
towards the Preview Release.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/general
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