Hi Pierre, as you mention explicitely my name, please refer to the official webpage listing the PMC members http://people.apache.org/committers-by-project.html#ofbiz-pmc instead of using an project documentation which may be inaccurate due to updates not made.
Regards, 2014-03-13 12:46 GMT+01:00 Pierre Smits <pierre.sm...@gmail.com>: > Hi all, > > For your information, please find below the email sent to the ASF board at > 1.01 AM this morning. > > Regards, > Pierre Smits > > *ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>* > Services & Solutions for Cloud- > Based Manufacturing, Professional > Services and Retail & Trade > http://www.orrtiz.com > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Pierre Smits <pierre.sm...@gmail.com> > Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 1:01 AM > Subject: Functioning and Future of Apache OFBiz > To: bo...@apache.org, human-respo...@apache.org > > > Dear Apache Board, > > Jacopo, the chair of the PMC of our Apache OFBiz may have submitted or will > soon submit the quarterly report 'ASF Board Report 2014-03' to you for > review and evaluation of the health of our project in your next board > meeting. > > In this report he, besides the others, point out 2 important aspects: > > 1. We have no issues that require Board assistance at this time, and > 2. We have an ongoing discussion, within the PMC/committers group and > the community, about the current status of the OFBiz project; > oversimplifying the two positions are the following: > 1. the ones that are worried that the project's progress is slower > than > in the past (several historical committers are indeed less > active) and push > to get more committers and PMC members onboard > 2. the ones that believe that slowing down is natural in a project > that is reaching a stability phase and, considering the great > complexity of > the OFBiz codebase, it is important to only invite contributors that > clearly demonstrate a deep knowledge of the framework in order to > maintain and improve its quality and stability over time > > With the second main bullet it seems that Jacopo tries, together with the > statement of his personal belief, to make it sound that the discussion is > > - just a discussion as it might take place in any project, > - that it just started recently (as you might believe since there is no > previous report mentioning such a discussion), and > - that it all has to do with the output of the project. > > Unfortunately, the discussion is going for a longer period than only the > months within the last quarter and the controversy between PMC/committers > and the rest of the community grows deeper. > > In order to fully comprehend what the controversy is about I need to > elaborate on a) the OFBiz solution (the technical aspect), and b) the OFBiz > community (history and current setup) of the project. > > a) the OFBiz solution > > The output of the OFBiz project is not only a technical suite of core > functions and apis (the Framework, as the PMC/committers call it) to build > and host applications on and to process and persist its data, but it is > also a comprehensive and integrated suite of business > applications/solutions for various kinds of enterprises in diversity of > industry markets and sectors. > And it doesn't matter whether it is for a single organisation setup, a > multiple organisation setup or through a multi-tenancy setup. The total > package includes business applications for asset management, order > management, crm, invoicing, e-commerce, manufacturing, project management, > warehousing, in and outbound logistics, supply chain management > (purchasing), payment processing, financial and general account, reporting > and BI, to name but a few. Even functionality to kickstart new business > applications is integrated. > In essence, the Apache OFBiz solution is the SAP of Open Source - done the > Apache way. > > This comprehensive suite has its business solutions, functions and apis > layered in 3 categories or levels: > > 1. The core (the FrameWork, as the PMC/committers call it) consisting of > the general/generic definitions, functions and apis for persisting and > processing of all kinds of data; > 2. The base (applications), consisting of business solutions as/for > accounting (financial transactions, payment processing), content mgt, > human > resource mgt, manufacturing, catalog & product management, order mgt and > invoice processing, marketing, warehousing and logistics and work > effort mgt > 3. Special purpose applications, e.g. for e-commerce, project mgt, asset > mgt, e-bay integration, google-integration and bi/reporting > > This all-encompassing approach established itself while incubating within > the ASF and has been (and still is) the major aspect of the mission > statement of the OFBiz project. It is this all-encompassing > approach/charter that kickstarted the project before it came to Apache, > during its infancy as a podling and from day one as a TLP and has attracted > many users and contributors (with all kinds of technical backgrounds, > delivering contributions encompassing languages as Java, Groovy, XML, FTL > and javascript) from all kinds of cultures and business domains. And not > only programmers, but also documenters (books have been published), ui/ux > specialists and more. > > In short, the OFBiz solution delivers more than you would expect at first > glance. > > b) the OFBIZ community (history and current state) > The initiative started way back in 2001 (a few visionary developers had the > drive to start this and had the ambition to bring it under the ASF > umbrella). The initiative when through the incubation process and was > awarded TLP status in 2004. In this period the majority of work needed and > contributed was > in the fist layer (the core). This first period of incubation and TLP years > also set the policies and ruling that still is are being enforced today. > But the contributions by the initial community members and newcomers to the > applications in the other layers also continued and increased. > > The PMC currently lists 13 names (of which the 2 mentors have never been > active in the community as far as I can tell). See > here< > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBADMIN/Apache+OFBiz+PMC+%28Project+Management+Committee%29+Members+and+Committers > >. > As you can see, Erwan de Ferrieres - who is mentioned in the report above > as being the latest addition to the PMC - doesn't appear in the list of PMC > members. So basically the PMC hasn't changed since 2007. And the original > founders of the project (Andrew Jenezki and David Jones) aren't actively > participating in the project anymore. > > Now the growing controversies. > > 1. Since the inception of the project only community members who > contributed regularly to the core of OFBiz have made the cut merit-wise > to > be invited to become committers. None of the other community members who > contributed to the other aspects of the project (the applications in the > other two layers, documentation or engaging in the mailing list to help > users) have ever made the cut. This has led to alienation to some of > those > contributors. > 2. Since the departure of founder David Jones in 2010 as an active > member of the community - he felt that over time the contributions (bug > fixes and enhancements) to the core and the base applications had grown > to > include flaws he wanted fixed, but he failed to achieve consensus within > the PMC though there was and is support from other community members to > enhance the core and base applications, functions and apis to be able to > replace and enhance current legacy solutions by the output of other > Apache > Projects, e.g. Chemistry/JackRabbit for content management, SHIRO for > authentication/authorisation/security and session management, Drools/ODE > for rules and orchestration management, . He, since then, created OFBiz > evolution 2. > 3. Though community members keep contributing (we currently have 1000 > unresolved issues, of which 163 with patches) the approach to improve > output is not to attract more committers to guide the community members > to > provide more patches and commit approved ones, but to phase-out > applications from layer 3 and sub components from layer 2 in order to > decrease the workload on the existing active PMC members/committers (the > slim down roadmap). > 4. A second PMC Member/committer has re-addressed the flaws in core and > base in the community and is willing to fix this together with the > community and within the project. Again there is support for this > innovation. And again no consensus can be reached with other PMC > members/committers - as it appears from postings in the MLs of the > project > 5. Though the number of new users is growing (the attraction of OFBiz is > not its core, but that it is an open, integrated eco-suite of business > applications with an active community) the participation of PMC > members/committers in the communities ML is declining. Only 1 PMC > member/committer is active on a somewhat daily basis in the user ML and > as > a coach to help contributors to provide patches and helping in review > and > commit. Some PMC members only manage the same limited number of issues > year > on year and do not interact with the other community members. > 6. Though committers can use their own discretion with regards to > resolving bugs, some of these committers see this also as a free pass to > dump code and functionality enhancements into the set of business > applications without delivering patches (that could be implemented in > older > versions) or involving other community members regarding establishing > the > need for it within the community, without establishing consensus > regarding > the added value, the requirements and solutions approach definition. Nor > trying to solicit assistance in requirements gathering & analysis, > testing > and communication of these solutions. > 7. Though everybody in the community understands that nobody is obliged > to resolve issues but that everybody can assist in furthering issues to > resolvement, it is feared (by some) that raising an issue in JIRA means > that the reporter also resolves it (by delivering patches), or that > when a > PMC member/committer assigns an issue to himself it is also resolved by > him. Hence our 1000 open issues, of which over 800 are unassigned. > > Since I joined the project in 2008, and have contributed - both in the MLs > and thru raising and resolving issues - regularly over the years, I see > the health of the OFBiz project trending downwards. > > Hence my plea to you to help this project to stay healthy and innovative. > On Thursday 13th of March we are holding a teleconference on the health and > future of the OFBiz project. I invite you to join in to get a first hand > experience of the sentiments and viewpoints of the various community > members participating. > > Details regarding the teleconference are: > > LocationLocal timeTime zoneUTC offsetLos > Angeles<http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=137> (U.S.A. > - California)Thursday, 13 March 2014, > 06:30:00PDT< > http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/na/pdt.html > >UTC-7 > hoursNew York <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=179> > (U.S.A. > - New York)Thursday, 13 March 2014, > 09:30:00EDT< > http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/na/edt.html > >UTC-4 > hoursLondon <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=136> > (United > Kingdom - England)Thursday, 13 March 2014, > 13:30:00GMT< > http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/eu/gmt.html> > UTCAmsterdam <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=16> > (Netherlands)Thursday, 13 March 2014, > 14:30:00CET< > http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/eu/cet.html > >UTC+1 > hourMoscow <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=166> > (Russia)Thursday, > 13 March 2014, 17:30:00MSK< > http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/eu/msk.html > >UTC+4 > hoursBangalore <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=438> > (India > - Karnataka)Thursday, 13 March 2014, > 19:00:00IST< > http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/asia/ist.html > >UTC+5:30 > hoursBangkok <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=28> > (Thailand)Thursday, 13 March 2014, > 20:30:00ICT< > http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/asia/ict.html > >UTC+7 > hoursAuckland <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=22> (New > Zealand)Friday, 14 March 2014, > 02:30:00NZDT< > http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/pacific/nzdt.html > >UTC+13 > hoursCorresponding UTC (GMT)Thursday, 13 March 2014, 13:30:00 > Please find below some details about how to participate, but you can always > more info on the website ofhttp://freeconferencecall.com > > *Conference Invite Details* > *Subject: * The Future of OFBiz - Open Discussion > *Date & time: * 2014-03-13 14:30 (GMT+01:00) > *Duration: * 2 hr. > > *Notes: * > > *Free Conference Call* > Conference Dial-in Number: +31 (0) 6 35205070 (Number in the Netherlands) > Participant Access Code: 779895# > > > > < > http://www.freeconferencecall.com/fcci/internationalnumbers.aspx?lang=NL&altlang=EN&phonenumber=+31%20(0)%206%2035205070 > > > > When prompted enter the access code that has been assigned, followed by the > # key. Once connected to the conference, you will be able to talk and have > access to the touch tone commands listed below. > > > Participant Feature KeysExit - exit the callInstructions - conference > instructionsMute/Unmute - caller controlled muting > > > With best regards, > > Pierre Smits > OFBiz community member > -- Erwan de FERRIERES Rejoignez-moi sur Whaller <http://www.whaller.com>
