Re: [libreoffice-website] Re: Extension-Template-Website: Categories need explanation

On 07/18/2011 12:56 PM, Italo Vignoli wrote:
> On 7/18/11 9:46 PM, Craig Olofson wrote:
>
> > Can someone please address this?  I'd like to know where the decision was
> > made to reference only F/OSS-licensed templates and extensions.
> This is something that we discussed before the initial announcement of
> September 28, 2010. The license is quite important, if we want to build
> a sound ecosystem around TDF. Of course, developers are free to choose a
> different license, but in this case we cannot promote their work hosting
> their extensions in our repository.
Thank you Italo.

This is a clear and sustainable policy and I am sure no one will be 
surprised by it.

I also understand that this page will be the paramount reference point 
for all templates & extensions in the entire LibreOffice ecosystem.  
This is why we should make some accommodation on the page to developers 
of extensions / templates which don't fall under GNU licensing.

The more inclusive and equitable this resource is towards the developer 
and end-user communities, the more valuable of an asset it becomes to 
TDF/LibO: more page-hits, more bookmarking and, ultimately, a more 
direct link with the user-base.

Conversely, if we make no attempt to help end-users find what they 
legitimately may be looking for then, the site is that much less 
effective or sticky.

To have an idea of what I am proposing, we would change the wording 
regarding licensing from:
> LibreOffice remains committed to providing users with quality software 
> authored under free software licenses 
> <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>, and, as such, our 
> catalogue of extensions and templates are published under free 
> software licenses <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>.
to:
> LibreOffice remains committed to providing users with quality software 
> authored under free software licenses 
> <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>, and, as such, we host 
> only extensions and templates which are published under free software 
> licenses <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>.
>
> For extensions and templates provided under other licensing, we have 
> included a listing referencing their authors' respective sites. 

In short, we will not host closed-source but we can reference it for the 
good of the larger community.  I believe this is preferable for two reasons:

 * this site becomes a comprehensive resource to the community
 * the conditions are an incentive for non-GNU developers to re-think
   their licensing
 * TDF actively demonstrates inclusiveness yet again.

Italo, thank you again for responding.  And if this isn't the proper 
forum for this thread, please point me in the right direction.  I am 
only now understanding how difficult it is to manage the volume of 
messaging going on in this product.

Regards,
-Craig



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