On Sunday 13 March 2005 16:07, Daniel Carrera wrote: > Christian Einfeldt wrote: > > > It is dangerous to think that being open source automatically > > > gives us more freedom to innovate than in a company. A > > > volunteer project can be just as resistant to innovation as > > > any company, and it can be worse. > > > > I am having trouble imagining a scenario like this. > > I don't, and it's unfortunate that you have little imagination. > There are already open source projects that are more resistant to > innovation than a company. Some FOSS projects can be extremely > restrictive.
As a simple end user, I don't see lots of these problems. Daniel, you successfully persuaded me and several others that one of the bug fixes that you had posted were important, and then we voted for it, remember that? However, I have not been persuaded about some of the other troubles that you and others are having with OOo. A couple folks at OOoRegiCon explained some of the issues to me , and I kinda got it, but then I forgot what the issues are. IMHO, Daniel, you need to make as good a case for the other problems that you are having as you did with that bug that you got me and several others to vote for. I really liked how you defined the problem, came up with a solution, and presented it to the community as a simple voting issue. All I had to do was read your explanation, think about it, then go to the site and vote for your bug. If I can offer a suggestion for you, I would suggest that you do the same kind of systematic campaign for other issues. I really like you, Daniel, but you do lose my attention when you get hot under the collar. The reason for it is that I feel that I have to look a bit harder through your posts to find out a definition for the problem; a proposed solution; and how I, a simple end user, can plug in to help you make your change. In other words, help me help you. If you want to persuade me, make it easy for me to side with you. Getting angry at people is not going to help you win your campaign with me personally, and I am already biased in your favor to begin with. I tend to WANT to find a way to support you, but I get lost in your arguments. BTW, the reason that I am biased in your favor is that I think that you tend to advocate community involvement; flexibility; rapid decision-making; and open access. The areas where I tend to have doubt about your leadership is what I perceive as a lack of experience in dealing with the bureaucracy of our corporate sponsors; your hot temper; and your generally youthful and overly optimistic outlook on stuff. I actually LIKE the job that Jacqueline McNally and John McCreesh and Louis Suarez-Potts are doing, because I think that they have strengths in the areas where you have a bit of weakness. I do like Sun Microsystems, but it does seem to me that Sun sometimes is unpredictable and unresponsive. And yet they are hugely important to the success of OOo. I think that you would have lots and lots of trouble working with the people at Sun. And yet, that doesn't really matter, because, IMHO, you are an agent of change within OOo. That is just your nature. But as your friend, I am here to tell you that you will continue to be received as an outside as long as you use such strong language. For example, you and I are friends, that much I can say with confidence. I think that at OOoRegiCon, you could see how highly I thought of you. And yet, you still write stuff like this: > you have little imagination. That didn't really bother me, because I know you, and I am willing to accept your good qualities with your not-so-hot qualities. OOo is becoming a huge project, one of the leading projects in the open source world. Our responsibility to the world is enormous. We are not a little, insignificant project anymore. The downside to that is that as we get bigger, we get a bit more boring. My 23 year old self would have been very angry at my current 43 year old self. The 23 year old would have called the 43 year old a sell out, boring, fat, and mediocre. But that's okay. Humans tend to see the world differently as we age, and projects do, too. The difference between a person and a project, though, is that a project can remain vital longer in different ways by incorporating the challenges of the muckrakers in the group. Your vision and passion are important to the group, but I don't always find myself being persuaded the way I was with the bug that you offered for a vote. Jean Hollis Weber is very skilled at making change. I think that you and I and lots of others agree that we can learn from watching her. She will be a great resource for you. Learn from her.
