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. 

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