Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Re: I'm back in the game.

Hello James,

It's good and useful to play the devil's advocate. Let me give you some
arguments that you can use in your conversations.

The LibO project is a meritocracy; it is not a democracy -in fact I
don't think there's even one FOSS project that is democratic in its
processes. It is not chaos either.  Meritocracy means that the people
who get to contribute in a seizable way - call the shots. Basically
it's about people who do -not anything in any random way- but it's
about people bringing things to the common pot. The best example is the
developers. Developers code, submit patches, etc.  

We have, just like any other FOSS project out there, set up some basic
governance and rules to be respected; and just like any FOSS project,
we have also defined what are the criteria to become a member of our
community and a contributor. I hope you read the bylaws? They're in
some respect explanatory and clarify many things in such a way that
it's obvious that this isn't about a small group of people controlling
everything. 

Now, regarding the differences with
OpenOffice.org, you could contribute all you wanted; most of the
processes weren't there or were documented, and besides, you had to
face one entity controlling everything. So no matter what you did, the
ultimate criterion to know whether one patch or one decision was being
accepted was the steward of the code and main sponsor's own will. It's
hardly governance. 

The situation TDF is currently in calls for a specific clarification.
We are right now in a transitory period. A lot of things are either not
being defined or are in the process of being set up. Among them, our
foundation is being set up but as long as it will not be fully
incorporated (and it will take several months) the Steering Committee
will function in a way which does not fully comply with our bylaws. It
is transitory and we're trying our best to document our actions and our
decisions, while taking the input of our contributors in consideration. 

I hope it has answered some of your questions. 

best,
Charles. 

Le Wed, 29 Dec 2010 08:50:27 -0500,
James Walker <centralus@gmail.com> a écrit :

> Today I am going to play devil's advocate, a few people have asked me
> what is different about TDF then OpenOffice.org.  When I try to
> explain to them that TDF is trying to make sure that the software is
> not controlled by one entity and that the community will have input
> into the direction that it takes I get a puzzled look and am asked
> how comes then does it seem like it is controlled by a select few.
>
> I asked them what they meant, so they pointed out that right now we
> have a steering committee and as of today there is no way anyone but
> the founding members can be on that committee, so I explained that it
> is a new project and these things take time.  Now the more I think
> about it I see their point, right now I see maybe 4-5 or five active
> members of that committee talking to us on the various mailing lists,
> and as of late it seems very clear that they do want to control what
> ever one else is doing.  As of today, I see this project moving in
> the same direction that OpenOffice.org has moved where there is a few
> people that have all the control.
>
> This thread and a few others related to it have really made me start
> to question whether or not the feedback and wishes of some of the
> community is going to be considered in the decissions that are made.
> I do remeber talking about Dave's idea, And most of the members (or
> should I say people that want to be members of the marketing team)
> came to the conclusion that it was a good idea and he should proceed,
> but now he has been told he does not have permission to use a
> trademark, that is supposed to be for the community that he a part of.
>
> I for one, stand behind Dave and offer my support to him in his
> efforts, Dave if you need any help let me know, I will do all that I
> can to assist you.
>
> James Walker



-- 
Charles-H. Schulz
Membre du Comité exécutif
The Document Foundation.

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