Hello folks, Recently I became involved in development of H.323-compatible software videophone [1] based on MPL-licensed OpenH323. It is mostly the same as Ekiga [2], though we hardly can join GPL-ed project due to complex licensing of the existing code. I have a strategic goal to expose our project code under Apache license and move related development to Apache. I believe that working on Apache would help us achieving legally clean code. As a nice side benefits goal I see openness to the English-speaking world which believes that software can be bought and not necessarily pirated, and providing an open alternative to the closed-source solutions ranged from Skype to Tandberg and Polycom, thus changing the world into being more competitive and customer-friendly. I would like taking advantage of APR though staying with PTLib seemed to be more realistic.
I believe it would be feasible providing several portable and re-usable communication libraries with clean interfaces under APL as the first step. Well, this requires much more understanding from the fellow stakeholders including developers who are not familiar with an open source model. I plan to resolve patenting issues around codecs Ekiga is facing by providing enough modularity of the project design and keeping questionable modules out of the Apache source base. I wonder what do you think about using Apache labs as a launching pad for the project. It is hard to guarantee now if it would be possible to expose enough code to build a self sufficient product. Some parts of our product are contaminated while others are third party legacy of uncertain origin (e.g. may be contaminated as well). We may only hope to concentrate enough resources to rewrite all of them. Another question is about bug tracking facility usage. Would it be an abuse to use it for all bugs related to the project even if the parts of it were closed? The last question is about proper binary placement. Is it ok to place the binary for those who would like to try the product on the web site of our company, providing references from Apache to our site? Placing the binary at Apache labs contradicts to no-releases labs policy. Finally, how does the project name "pulse" sound for your ear? Could anyone suggest anything better? With best regards, Alexei [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avOVE2BbPHE [2] Ekiga, http://www.gnomemeeting.org/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
