On 20 October 2011 10:02, Martin Hollmichel < [email protected]> wrote:
> Hi, > > Wether to stay with OpenOffice or LibreOffice or to migrate to LibreOffice > or to OpenOffce is a question in the recent past often occurred, by users, > by people doing business with OpenOffice, by the press. The answer I would > like to give is that this question is not really that relevant because there > is a roadmap in place and both projects plan to stay close together. > > I suggest following actions: > > * A call to LibreOffice contributors also to contribute their changes to > Apache as the ASF is the long desired independent foundation for > OpenOffice.org. On this basis a collaboration among the OpenOffice.org > Apache Project and TDF can be achieved and duplication of efforts get > avoided. As a result the question which project/product to choose is not > that important any more. > > * Provide an OpenOffice.org 3.3.1 micro release showing the world that > OpenOffice.org continues to move (assuming that an production stable 3.4 > release is not ready to get happen within the next months), this release > should include a prominent statement to show the upcoming roadmap with the > next releases. This 3.3.x release may not comply with the ASF standards but > is an ideal vehicle for doing communication and elaborate on the transition > from the old to the new environment. > > * Work on a model or agreement where user donations specific to the project > can be continued. This is not only a matter for the ASF (and Team OOo), but > for the overall community and we need to find ways to include them > (including TDF) into this discussion. It is required that we have a clear > communication on how donations will benefit the project and to provide > transparency on the execution. A donation model shall give users a more > direct possibility to influence the further development of the product > without the filtering by own interests of a profit orientated organization. > We need to include the expertise of people doing business with OpenOffice > into this approach, so doing this discussion also on > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]**>might makes sense. > The employment of full time developers sponsored and directed by the > community is IHMO a very good chance and would be examplary for the bigger > opensource projects. I think this model is already to be proven as working > fine for small OS projects and we now got that chance to introduce this also > for OpenOffice.org. > Hi Martin, I'd like to consider the last point first. There is no reason why TeamOO can't carry on as a fund-raising entity independent of ASF and TDF but providing benefit to both. I suggest that this is the simplest way to arrange things because it does not require any changes to the existing structures. Of course getting permission to use trademarks etc from each project is a "nice to have" but even that is not essential if you don't use the branding except nominatively. Donations are only part of the potential business that such an entity could do but it is a good starting point again because it is simple. With the right business strategy optimising grants from the EU and income from other services and merchandise it is not difficult to envisage resource generation that would be very significant. A further advantage of this approach is that it frees up the people working through TDF and ASF to focus on their core business of getting code done and distributed. Of course close collaboration with both communities would be highly desirable but not a show stopper to start with if it isn't forthcoming. So how would the money be used? The board of TeamOO could include TDF and ASF representation (and from other interested parties). That board would make strategic decisions about what to fund and how to raise further funds supported by volunteers. An alternative approach would be to have a board entirely independent of any particular project in order to sidestep any problems with internal politics. Really, deciding a constitution is something that needs to be thought through as soon as an overall strategy is agreed. It might be that one or other of TDF/ASF wants to cooperate and one not. That then requires some decisions but in effect and independent TeamOO makes such situations at least manageable. -- Ian Ofqual Accredited IT Qualifications (The Schools ITQ) www.theINGOTs.org +44 (0)1827 305940 The Learning Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and Wales.
