Hi, On 2012-04-06, at 06:28 , Ian wrote:
> Hi All, > > I found this http://www.openoffice.org.au/ is it part of the Apache World > .. or should it be? I can't see how recent it is, but it should probably be > brought into line with the current world? > > Cheers, > > Ian I recall the creation, I believe. There are others--many--that exist. Some have country codes attached, as the South African one. To bring them in from the cold, as it were (if not into the "fold") does require, I should think, some simple and clear protocols, like: * license policy coherence * participation and representation: what function do these satellite sites serve? During the Sun/Oracle regime, many members created these for a couple of reasons, one of them being anxiety that as Sun had no evident interest the first 9 years of OOo's life of doing so, other, less friendly interests might squat on the URLs. Another reason was that Sun's license policy, including the infamous copyright assignment requirement for all code contributed, was seen as oppressive by these, who created the satellites using different licensing regimes. Finally, another reason was simply to have a "home" base for operations--soft, friendly, ultimately helpful diversions--not forks. I had proposed long ago to weakly coordinate these satellites if only by listing them. I moved ahead with this under the Regional Community program, and there were some successes. The point here, though, was that the regionals could establish NGO funding more easily, as tax provisions across nations (even supranational orgs) lead to insanity and lawyer wealth. With Apache, much of the above changes and renders moot or irrelevant many of the reasons for the satellites' creation. But the satellites also offer a great feature: local representation for local engagement of local developers and contributors. In the end, development is greatly assisted by knowing your community as people, not just as an email or IM alias. And it's really that people make the difference in a community of this sort. Else it's just theatre. cheers Louis PS I realize I also own now openoffice.ca, which of course I'd be happy to shape into something for AOO's furtherance.
