On Tue, 2005-03-15 at 22:06, Daniel Carrera wrote: > Ian Lynch wrote: > > > The question is what to do to make things better? > > > > Problem - OOo is suffereng a number of the downsides of large > > bureaucracies > > > > Solution(s) ? > > I've spent some itme trying to answer this. I have no shortage of > solutions, but every time I wanted to put one down I decided not to send > it because I didn't want to deal with the reprecausions. We talk about > bureocracy and too much control being concentrated in too small a group.
In actual fact the main source of control is Sun. The controllers effectively get their authority from Sun. So changing Sun policy is the key. However, the only way I can see this happening is through persuasion and negotiation or through a fork. The latter I think would not make much sense because the project would lose more than it gained. The only way a fork would possibly improve things would be if it could guarantee to sustain at least the levels of engineering effort that Sun is putting in. Ok, it might be argued that if it wasn't for Sun lots of hackers would come out of the wood work but I really can't see that happening and it would be a very large risk to make that assumption. So that leads to pursuasion. A difficult task because corporates the size of Sun are usually fairly set in their ways - role culture as described earlier. > If I say something that someone in "authority" doesn't like, will that > mean that the next time I propose an idea it'll be rejected? Its not what you say but the way that you say it, that's what gets results :-) > Lord knows I > have had a lot of my ideas and proposals killed before they start. Will my > next project be blocked because I am too subversive? Worse yet, isn't it > sand that I worry about this? I've had a lot of trouble writing this > email. Not because I don't have suggestions and solutions, but because I > know that expressing my opinions will come back to haunt me. You aren't going to like this but really at this point in time I don't see some killer solution to this problem. I think it needs patience and that is difficult when you are enthusiastic about something. On the + side, overall development goes on. While Sun put in a few million dollars a year, unless someone else can input that sort of resource, whether through money or in kind, Sun are going to rule the roost. Personally, I can accept this as not perfect, but if its what it takes to get an Open X-platform suite that can compete with MS Office, so be it. In the meantime a long term strategy is to do what one can where one can and work out a way of bringing resources to the party that are significant enough to change the balance of power. Not easy, but not necessarily impossible. -- Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ZMS Ltd
