David E. Jones wrote:
On Jan 23, 2007, at 4:17 AM, Ian McNulty wrote:
If David is saying is that he wants to stay tailoring for the
executives and is appalled at the idea of selling ill-fitting suits
to the masses then no way would I want to knock that.
Except I didn't say that.
I accept you didn't say that. That's why I started with an "If"
Suits and software are a bit different.
Also accepted. No model is a perfect representation of the real thing.
Working through this logically...
If the differences are significant, then the model must be rejected.
If trivial, we can accept it and move on.
What I said is that whatever we try to do, there has to be a model for
it and a plan to make it work.
1) Models put forward to date would include:
1.1) The clothing industry
1.2) The automobile industry
1.3) The aircraft industry
1.4) Some other industry we haven't thought of yet.
Until sound reasons arise to show the differences are significant, there
is no reason to reject any one out-of-hand.
2) The plan to make it work would be:
2.1) State strategic objective
2.2) Implement Deming Quality Circle
2.2.1) Design tactics for achieving strategic objective
2.2.2) Implement tactics
2.2.3) Assess outcomes
2.2.4) Modify tactics
2.2.5) Re-design plans
2.2.6) Implement new plans
2.2.7) Assess new outcomes
2.2.8) Modify tactics
2.2.9) Re-design plans
2.2.10) Implement new plans
2.3) Iterate process until strategic objective is achieved.
I think it would be cool to go after the end-user who would never
think of customizing OFBiz or paying for it. The question is, how do
we get people to work on this as a derivative of OFBiz?
At last count, I would say you already had about half a dozen volunteers.
The seeds are planted. All they need is the space to grow.
What will be the incentive for analysts, developers, documentation
writers, support personnel, etc?
Same as it is at the moment.
To create work for themselves and be in at the start of a sustainable
and growing industry.
Not that it's impossible either. There are a few open source groups
doing packages oriented this way. Their funding model is usually
similar to commercial software though, which is why they like the GPL
license, or even worse the HPL, (onerous enough that some will
need/want to buy a commercial license).
The Apache model has worked well for Apache. If I'm not mistaken, 60% of
the internet at the last count. Why not just run with that?
On top of all of that, if we really want a lot of users we'll probably
need to market it a bit too.
Possibly. But imho that's quite a few steps down the line.
First step would be to clear away obstacles.
Then send envoys onto other forums. Give word-of-mouth and viral
marketing it's head.
Then assess the outcomes.
If the bandwagon looks good there'll be marketeers who want to jump on it.
If not I'll eat my (Red) hat.
I never said I want to stay doing what I am. It's really not that
great. I'm certainly not appalled at doing something different,
That's certainly a good place to start.
though I do appreciate the dramatic effect of the phrase-ology.
Got no idea what you mean by that. Please expand.
I did say that I don't know how to do that, especially in a
community-driven project.
Anybody who claims they know exactly how to do it is a liar. There are
no such certainties in this life.
It's the will that creates the way.
Ian
