Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Article on Datamation website: "How Microsoft Office Tops LibreOffice: 11 Features"

["Charles-H.Schulz" <charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org>]

Hello Robert,

The "group" aka the foundation, decided after much discussions with
service providers and experts on LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org
deployments and migrations to start this certification programme. It
goes way back to the OpenOffice.org days where most of the potential for
OpenOffice.org migrations could not be fulfilled because potential
customers were either not confident on picking the right supplier for
such services or actually got in trouble when it realized it had been
sold some expertise the supplier didn't have. 

At least in Europe -but I also know it took place in other parts of the
world such as Asia- you had IT companies pretending to be experts in
OpenOffice.org migrations that were able to win tenders and actually
never executed on the parts relevant to the expertise around
OpenOffice.org. 

At the same time there was a clear call from smaller IT companies to
gain some status and transparence on who in the business was doing what.
Some modest attempts to that happened during these years, but they were
clearly insufficient. But anyway you looked at this, the feedback from
customers and suppliers was clear: the ecosystem just was not able to
grow despite clear (and growing) demand and vendor/service provider
certification was requested. 

Now to your other question: should TDF focus on code development and
extensions?  Well it could and it is essentially what it is doing these
days. But honestly  we need to grow our reach and fix the mess that
years of OpenOffice.org interaction with business was not able to deal
with. You  seem to be wary of TDF making a profit here; TDF is indeed
not for profit -but does it mean it is for loss? Clearly, if we ever
make profits from certification (something I'm not sure of) it will at
least create resources we are in dire need of. We need funds for
infrastructure, marketing on a global level and many other things.

Best,
-- 
Charles-H. Schulz
Co-Founder & Director, The Document Foundation,
Zimmerstr. 69, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts
Legal details: http://www.documentfoundation.org/imprint




Le jeudi 26 avril 2012 à 21:47 -0400, Robert Ryley a écrit :
> This has nothing to do with agreement, but with evidence.  I did not ask
> for a change of course.  I asked how the group decided it was competent to
> judge others.
> 
> Second, from people in the bsd community, I have data that it costs close
> to six figures to implement a cbt with the capable vendors.
> 
> Your nonresponsiveness about whose interest is furthered by this course of
> action is disturbing.   Developers, writers, and testers who might
> contribute now have to deal with self appointed third parties who use the
> work, but will now imply people who don't pay up for a piece of paper, are
> incompetent.
> 
> So whose interest does the project serve - developers or buyers?
> On Apr 26, 2012 9:33 PM, "Italo Vignoli" <italo.vignoli@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Robert Ryley wrote:
> >
> > > So, you have no answers to any of my observations, but feel
> > > "competent" to declare that "certification"
> > > will solve the problem?
> >
> > It looks like you have already decided that we are wrong, as you are
> > going on with your assumptions. I have already answered, but it looks
> > like you consider my answer as wrong because they are not in line with
> > your thinking.
> >
> > Again, you are free to think that we are wrong, and I am free to think
> > that you are wrong. Sometimes, you do not want to discuss when you feel
> > that there is nothing to discuss.
> >
> > We are not going to change our course of action because you show up and
> > decide that this is not the right course of action. We have discussed it
> > in public: the program is online since August 2011.
> >
> > We are answering a request of some of our members, both developers and
> > non developers, who are happy about the solution and are ready to
> > support the program.
> >
> > We appreciate the fact that there might be people who do not agree with
> > our vision, but we know that we will never get to a global consensus.
> >
> > This is my last message on the subject.
> >
> > --
> > Italo Vignoli - italo.vignoli@gmail.com
> > mob +39.348.5653829 - VoIP 5316436@messagenet.it
> > skype italovignoli - gtalk italo.vignoli@gmail.com
> >
> > --
> > Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to marketing+help@global.libreoffice.org
> > Problems?
> > http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
> > Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
> > List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/marketing/
> > All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be
> > deleted
> >
> >
> 



-- 
Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to marketing+help@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/marketing/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted