Re: [libreoffice-marketing] LibreOffice mini Conference 2016 Osaka/Japan (9th Jan, 2016)

Takeshi-San,


Takeshi Abe <tabe@fixedpoint.jp> @ 2015-12-28 04:08 CET:

> Hi Charles,
>
> As Naruhiko-san poked me about the interview material, I would like
> to make a pitch for some of your questions.
>
> On Sat, 26 Dec 2015 15:37:33 +0100, Charles-H. Schulz <charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org> 
> wrote:
> > Sure - perhaps TDF could publish this interview on its official blog. Let's
> > have some questions - others please feel free to add more:
> >
> > - Can you tell us more about the context of the Japan LibreOffice
> >   Mini-Conference?
> >
> > - Can you tell us more about the LibreOffice Japanese community?
> In 2012 the idea of mini Conference in Japan have emerged from
> discussion in LibreOffice Japanese Team, which organizes the series of
> events. Our team consists of the most active contributors in the Japanese
> community, serving as a NLP now.
>
> To explain what we considered, let me summarize a history of the Japanese
> community since the OOo era briefly. (Please note that this is based on
> my personal view.)
> OOo already earned huge expectation from Japanese users. It was obvious
> from the number of migrations [1] in the country, and the fact that
> a government agancy led a project on techinical research for Japanese
> Language specific features [2].
>
> Unfortunately, like other groups in the OOo project, Japanese volunteers
> suffered from the bureaucratic nature of the project. Core members of
> NLP faced difficulty to focus on contribution. They eventually parted ways,
> ending up that some of them formed so-called "users group" [3] at 2002,
> to try taking care of the situation better than "official" NLP.
> The dispute seems to remain unresolved until today.
>
> This kind of separation resulted in fewer collaboration between volunteers
> and poor communication within the community. Worse, user and business
> organizations became skeptical about availability of skilled people who
> can help them send feed back to the project. That implied even fewer
> contribution.
>
> Time passed and the launch of LibreOffice struck. Its manifesto sounded
> exactly essential to us. Sure, meritocracy is the key. Early members of
> LibreOffice Japanese Team has chosen a flat structure with no lead.
> Our team encouraged each to do what he/she could do in his/her favorite manner.
> It worked magically, and works well so far.
> But one practical issue recurs: how can we communicate effectively outside
> the project for, e.g., promoting LibreOffice, recruiting new volunteers or
> exchanging ideas with the industry, when we have neither authority nor
> structured man-power?
>
> One of the answers we argued was simple: let's gather and ask people who concern.
> That's why mini Conference was born.
>
> > - Is LibreOffice known in Japan and are there known deployments in the public
> >   or private sector?
> Yes. You can find visible deployments at
> https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/JA/Marketing/CaseStudy
>
> > - Last question: do you have any specific goal for this mini-conference that
> >   would make you and the Japanese community happy?
> Yes. It aims at gathering people anually for unifying the community.
> It also gives our Japanese Team an off-line meeting.
>
> The last mini Conference was held in late 2014, which topic is code
> development from the Japanese community.
> It was not only a success with interesting presentations by young hackers,
> but also provided a tutorial for newbies about how to start hacking LibreOffice.
>
> This time we plan to meet people among broader interests.
> We have called for both long and short form of presentations on whatever,
> whoever in the community would like to share.
> Accepted papers include ones from users, volunteers, academia and companies
> providing value-added service.
> I am sure that meeting friends in the community at early January and enjoying
> refreshingly cold air at Osaka will be great for new year's resolution :)
>
> [1] http://ossforum.jp/jossfiles/OpenOffice.org_use_cases_0.pdf
> [2] 
> https://web.archive.org/web/20070506220203/http://www.ipa.go.jp/software/open/ossc/2007/theme/koubo1_t01.html
> [3] http://oooug.jp/
>
> Cheers,
> -- Takeshi Abe

Excellent thank you! Italo, do you think we could publish this interview on
the official TDF blog?

Thanks,

-- 
Charles-H. Schulz Co-founder, The Document Foundation, Kurfürstendamm 188, 10707 Berlin 
Gemeinnützige rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts Legal details: 
http://www.documentfoundation.org/imprint Mobile Number: +33 (0)6 98 65 54 24.

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