From: "David E Jones" <d...@me.com>
On Feb 5, 2010, at 3:24 PM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
One feeling I have though, PHBs are often pushing this way, note that I did not
say that you are a PHB :p
Actually, I agree with you about "our" lack of interest for end user. I think
this is due to the nature of OFBiz itself...
I won't agree there is any lack of interest for end-users. In fact, nearly
everything in OFBiz is the result of some end-user or
other requesting functionality and being willing to sponsor its creation and
contribution back to the project.
That's not exactly what I meant. Who are those end-users I was trying to talk
about? Technical aware persons, with influence in
companies but not enough time to look into every technical details (CTO, CIO,
etc.). So they make (or at least help to make) very
important decisions (financial decision, I mean) for the future of their
entreprises. And for that try to get as much as possible
information when making a choice between competitors. It's already a good news
when they are considering OSS. Then chances are they
will compare projects. This is the target I was talking about. I personnaly
think that a *huge* effort as been already done in OFBIz
to give them ways to make their choice. I was simply saying that we should try
to continue this effort. Not only some persons as it
was some years ago, when the knowledge was not as shared as today. For instance
the effort you made, David, on the Framework *open
and (now) free* documentation was certainly one the most important the project
benefited. But I'm not quite sure (euphemism ;o) all
the decision-makers (or helpers) take the time to read it thourougly and to
understand all subtleties while evaluating OFBiz. So
now, what we need is a satellite map (kind of marketing) to facilitate the
decisions of these guys and, as much as possible, to make
them happy to choice OFBiz :o)
Some themes I foresee:
1) Why you should use the trunk instead of a release,
2) Why OFBIz is here to stay, independtly of the people working currently on it
3) Why... ok I'm lazy today (actually more knackered but who cares ;o)...
The theme 1 is one of the most important to me because it distinguishs OFBiz
from its competitors, even VAR projects based on OFBiz.
It allows to follow the projects and, if inclined to, to contribute to it and
to make it grow along your own needs.
When you Google for "OFBiz" in France you get these pages in this order
http://ofbiz.apache.org/
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_OFBiz
http://www.les7arts.com/assist/ArgumentaireOFBiz.htm
The 1st is obvious, the 2d I frequently garden and I'm happy to see it there,
the 3d was a page I wrote in 2005, and is a free
translation (with a lot of changes and adaptation through the years) from an
old Automation Group site page. Something is missing in
this document, the point 1. It's now months that I want to write something
about that. Because I believe it's why so much projects
based on OFBiz did not evolve with OFBiz and became legacy. This is bad for 2
reasons: these projects will not benefit of all the
enhancements OFBiz is able to give them, OFBiz does not benefit of potential
long term contributors. From my experience, few
projects succeed in this way (even VAR projects) because they neglict this
paramount point!
There are already a lot of things spreaded in the wiki. I will try, when I will
get a chance, to make something more comprehensible
for new comers (I prefer this word than newbies or even worse noobs ;o)
Sorry for he long post, I have this in mind for a long time...
Jacques
