[libreoffice-marketing] Re: Recruitment for Base (Was Re: [steering-discuss] Base - a new mailing list?)

Le 14/09/11 15:05, Charles-H. Schulz a écrit :

Hi Charles,


> The second point is about recruitment of developers. I hope that I'm not
> making myself a mistake in assuming that what is being understood is to
> actually hire developers... perhaps what is meant is attracting
> developers? In any case, we cannot mandate developers to work on
> something like we would do in a company. It's a big difference between a
> business and a FOSS community and project. Developers join by
> themselves, provided the information is there.

Exactly, my comment as to the requirements of a developer were more in
line with "if a volunteer wants to step up this is how high the barrier
to entry is going to be", and not at all a view to hiring a developer,
which as you mention, is not something that really happens in FOSS
projects (or else, only on rare occasions).


> I must admit I am myself very, very unclear on what we are trying to
> achieve with Base. And it's not just now, it's always been the case (for
> me, at least). Base was added to Openoffice.org as a new module and the
> whole experience was suboptimal. 

Well my memory is obviously slightly older than yours because I remember
the days of OOo 1.1.x and prior to that with StarOffice, where databases
were already accessible, where forms could be designed and made, and
queries designed and run. I even designed a switchboard document with
buttons that let me link and switch to forms for data entry. The rest,
as they say, is history, and after some humming and hahing by Sun we
ended up with the Base module as we currently know/love/hate it.


> mean time. The result now is not that we have developers not doing
> anything on Base (in fact, we do). The result is that there are less
> resources on this because developers are simply less interested in
> acting on it, and there's nothing we can force them to do (or not do).

Quite.


> Hence, one thing that might help -and this is very much a call for
> brainstorm, with the hope that we collect expectations about Base- is to
> gather feedback from users, see what we can understand from their use,
> or non-use of Base, and not being afraid to ask some real questions.

I actually think this would be a good idea : it was, after all (at least
that is what we were led to believe), the results of a user survey that
goaded Sun into action about designing Base2 (as opposed to
maintaining/improving the then existing database capability).

> As an example: should Base be scrapped off? Should we use it as a front
> end to another DB? should we try to compete with Access? Should it be
> geared towards a more complete usage (read: integrated as a front end to
> enterprise DB); is it enough to squash the reported bugs on Base? etc.
>
> After that survey we can a) analyze the results b) take action in two
> forms: suggestions to the broader community (devs included) or writing a
> set of RFEs (Request For Enhancement). RFEs are something developers can
> work with. You may call them hacks, but  the point is this; you describe
> in technical and functional terms, step by step, what a feature should
> be. Not just "It should be able to compete with Access" or "it should be
> red". But rather: "description of feature, rationale, behaviour, usage
> scenario, etc.".

If a survey were to see the light of day, it would need to have the
broadest possible communication, as the majority of Base users I know
are not actually on any of the LibO lists, or at least their voices are
not often to be heard. It would be interesting to hear what people still
using OOo feel too, because on the Apache lists, IBM, for one, appears
to have no real interest in a sophisticated frontend solution (they got
rid of it completely in Symphony).


So whilst the general discussion about Base could well be carried out on
the discuss list, it would be good for discussions about making a survey
to be kept here IMO.


Alex


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