[PROPOSAL] Reinvigorate extension authors community

[Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org>]

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm shifting my focus more to
the extended OpenOffice ecosystem rather than day-to-day release-cycle
tasks.   One of the things I'd like to push for is reinvigorating the
application development community.

In the legacy project we supported extensions authors via a dedicated
mailing list, a wiki, its own IRC channel, and of course the
extensions repository website.  Today we have very little of that
active.

I'd like to breath some new life into this part of the ecosystem.  Now
that we have a steady heartbeat of releases, both delivered and
planned, and a solid record of end-user downloads, it is easier to
argue the value of developing extensions for OpenOffice.  I'd like to
help promote this side of the ecosystem via the following tasks:

1) Create a new mailing list:  ooo-extensions@incubator.apache.org (or
appdev@incubator.apache.org if we prefer).  I'll assert that the
current mailing lists are inadequate for encouraging this community to
thrive.  If they interact on ooo-dev then they are bombarded with 99%
irrelevant posts, and if they gather on ooo-users then this will be
disruptive to the end-user subscribers there.  Extension authors
really are a distinct sub-community of their own.

2) Promote the mailing list via the usual means:  website, social
networking, maybe a blog post.

3) Try to contact the existing extension authors, to encourage them to
joint the list.  I'd try to do this via SourceForge initially, since
they might already have the means to send them all an email.

4) Promote AOO extension development in general, by interviews of
extension authors, blog posts, perhaps even a rotating spot on our
website featuring an "extension of the week" (or day).

5) Encourage this community to provide feedback to the project and
help maintain the current app dev and SDK documentation, website and
wiki.

If there are no objections to the above I'll go ahead with step 1 in
72 hours.  I'll need a couple more list moderator volunteers as well.

And of course, if anyone wants to help with other parts of the above,
or complimentary tasks, please let me know.

Regards,

-Rob

Re: [PROPOSAL] Reinvigorate extension authors community

[Louis Suárez-Potts <lu...@gmail.com>]

On 12-10-01, at 08:49 , Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:

> 5 days have passed and no objections were raised, so I'll start moving
> this forward.

Great, thanks.
Louis

> 
> -Rob
> 
> On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 1:34 PM, Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
>> As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm shifting my focus more to
>> the extended OpenOffice ecosystem rather than day-to-day release-cycle
>> tasks.   One of the things I'd like to push for is reinvigorating the
>> application development community.
>> 
>> In the legacy project we supported extensions authors via a dedicated
>> mailing list, a wiki, its own IRC channel, and of course the
>> extensions repository website.  Today we have very little of that
>> active.
>> 
>> I'd like to breath some new life into this part of the ecosystem.  Now
>> that we have a steady heartbeat of releases, both delivered and
>> planned, and a solid record of end-user downloads, it is easier to
>> argue the value of developing extensions for OpenOffice.  I'd like to
>> help promote this side of the ecosystem via the following tasks:
>> 
>> 1) Create a new mailing list:  ooo-extensions@incubator.apache.org (or
>> appdev@incubator.apache.org if we prefer).  I'll assert that the
>> current mailing lists are inadequate for encouraging this community to
>> thrive.  If they interact on ooo-dev then they are bombarded with 99%
>> irrelevant posts, and if they gather on ooo-users then this will be
>> disruptive to the end-user subscribers there.  Extension authors
>> really are a distinct sub-community of their own.
>> 
>> 2) Promote the mailing list via the usual means:  website, social
>> networking, maybe a blog post.
>> 
>> 3) Try to contact the existing extension authors, to encourage them to
>> joint the list.  I'd try to do this via SourceForge initially, since
>> they might already have the means to send them all an email.
>> 
>> 4) Promote AOO extension development in general, by interviews of
>> extension authors, blog posts, perhaps even a rotating spot on our
>> website featuring an "extension of the week" (or day).
>> 
>> 5) Encourage this community to provide feedback to the project and
>> help maintain the current app dev and SDK documentation, website and
>> wiki.
>> 
>> If there are no objections to the above I'll go ahead with step 1 in
>> 72 hours.  I'll need a couple more list moderator volunteers as well.
>> 
>> And of course, if anyone wants to help with other parts of the above,
>> or complimentary tasks, please let me know.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> -Rob

Re: [PROPOSAL] Reinvigorate extension authors community

[Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org>]

5 days have passed and no objections were raised, so I'll start moving
this forward.

-Rob

On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 1:34 PM, Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
> As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm shifting my focus more to
> the extended OpenOffice ecosystem rather than day-to-day release-cycle
> tasks.   One of the things I'd like to push for is reinvigorating the
> application development community.
>
> In the legacy project we supported extensions authors via a dedicated
> mailing list, a wiki, its own IRC channel, and of course the
> extensions repository website.  Today we have very little of that
> active.
>
> I'd like to breath some new life into this part of the ecosystem.  Now
> that we have a steady heartbeat of releases, both delivered and
> planned, and a solid record of end-user downloads, it is easier to
> argue the value of developing extensions for OpenOffice.  I'd like to
> help promote this side of the ecosystem via the following tasks:
>
> 1) Create a new mailing list:  ooo-extensions@incubator.apache.org (or
> appdev@incubator.apache.org if we prefer).  I'll assert that the
> current mailing lists are inadequate for encouraging this community to
> thrive.  If they interact on ooo-dev then they are bombarded with 99%
> irrelevant posts, and if they gather on ooo-users then this will be
> disruptive to the end-user subscribers there.  Extension authors
> really are a distinct sub-community of their own.
>
> 2) Promote the mailing list via the usual means:  website, social
> networking, maybe a blog post.
>
> 3) Try to contact the existing extension authors, to encourage them to
> joint the list.  I'd try to do this via SourceForge initially, since
> they might already have the means to send them all an email.
>
> 4) Promote AOO extension development in general, by interviews of
> extension authors, blog posts, perhaps even a rotating spot on our
> website featuring an "extension of the week" (or day).
>
> 5) Encourage this community to provide feedback to the project and
> help maintain the current app dev and SDK documentation, website and
> wiki.
>
> If there are no objections to the above I'll go ahead with step 1 in
> 72 hours.  I'll need a couple more list moderator volunteers as well.
>
> And of course, if anyone wants to help with other parts of the above,
> or complimentary tasks, please let me know.
>
> Regards,
>
> -Rob

Re: [PROPOSAL] Reinvigorate extension authors community

[Jürgen Schmidt <jo...@gmail.com>]

On 9/27/12 3:22 PM, Kevin Grignon wrote:
> KG01 - See comments inline.
> 
> On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 2:50 AM, Albino B Neto <bi...@apache.org> wrote:
> 
>> Hi.
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 2:34 PM, Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
>>> 1) Create a new mailing list:  ooo-extensions@incubator.apache.org (or
>>> appdev@incubator.apache.org if we prefer).  I'll assert that the
>>> current mailing lists are inadequate for encouraging this community to
>>> thrive.  If they interact on ooo-dev then they are bombarded with 99%
>>> irrelevant posts, and if they gather on ooo-users then this will be
>>> disruptive to the end-user subscribers there.  Extension authors
>>> really are a distinct sub-community of their own.
>>
>> I agree.
>>
>> Demand for emails here on ooo-dev is great, a specific list for
>> API/extension will be better.
>>
>>> 2) Promote the mailing list via the usual means:  website, social
>>> networking, maybe a blog post.
>>>
>>> 3) Try to contact the existing extension authors, to encourage them to
>>> joint the list.  I'd try to do this via SourceForge initially, since
>>> they might already have the means to send them all an email.
>>>
>>> 4) Promote AOO extension development in general, by interviews of
>>> extension authors, blog posts, perhaps even a rotating spot on our
>>> website featuring an "extension of the week" (or day).
>>
> 
> KG01 - I say will integrate the extension experience within the editors.
> Start pages and docked task panes could promote extensions and drive
> traffic to extension marketplace/downloadplace/place where we keep them ;)
> Furthermore, we could create an integrated extension manager that actually
> allows users to browse, select and enable extensions, just like an iTunes
> app store or the Evernote trunk. The goal would be to keep users in the AOO
> tools and bring the extensions to them - on demand. This would scale well
> to support any effort to reduce the footprint and surface advanced
> capabilites via extensions.

That was the initial idea of us when we started with the extension
manager. It's still on a my wish list together with a smoother
integration of the template repository. Easy navigating online
templates, bookmark them, download them for offline usage etc.

And both repo's would be configurable for enterprise internal usage,
means internal repo's and no public ones.

Juergen


> 
> 
>>>
>>> 5) Encourage this community to provide feedback to the project and
>>> help maintain the current app dev and SDK documentation, website and
>>> wiki.
>>
>> Yeah!
>>
>> We need listing more users. (:
>>
>>> I'll need a couple more list moderator volunteers as well.
>>
>> Me.
>>
>> Albino
>>
> 

Re: [PROPOSAL] Reinvigorate extension authors community

[Kevin Grignon <ke...@gmail.com>]

KG01 - See comments inline.

On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 2:50 AM, Albino B Neto <bi...@apache.org> wrote:

> Hi.
>
> On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 2:34 PM, Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
> > 1) Create a new mailing list:  ooo-extensions@incubator.apache.org (or
> > appdev@incubator.apache.org if we prefer).  I'll assert that the
> > current mailing lists are inadequate for encouraging this community to
> > thrive.  If they interact on ooo-dev then they are bombarded with 99%
> > irrelevant posts, and if they gather on ooo-users then this will be
> > disruptive to the end-user subscribers there.  Extension authors
> > really are a distinct sub-community of their own.
>
> I agree.
>
> Demand for emails here on ooo-dev is great, a specific list for
> API/extension will be better.
>
> > 2) Promote the mailing list via the usual means:  website, social
> > networking, maybe a blog post.
> >
> > 3) Try to contact the existing extension authors, to encourage them to
> > joint the list.  I'd try to do this via SourceForge initially, since
> > they might already have the means to send them all an email.
> >
> > 4) Promote AOO extension development in general, by interviews of
> > extension authors, blog posts, perhaps even a rotating spot on our
> > website featuring an "extension of the week" (or day).
>

KG01 - I say will integrate the extension experience within the editors.
Start pages and docked task panes could promote extensions and drive
traffic to extension marketplace/downloadplace/place where we keep them ;)
Furthermore, we could create an integrated extension manager that actually
allows users to browse, select and enable extensions, just like an iTunes
app store or the Evernote trunk. The goal would be to keep users in the AOO
tools and bring the extensions to them - on demand. This would scale well
to support any effort to reduce the footprint and surface advanced
capabilites via extensions.


> >
> > 5) Encourage this community to provide feedback to the project and
> > help maintain the current app dev and SDK documentation, website and
> > wiki.
>
> Yeah!
>
> We need listing more users. (:
>
> > I'll need a couple more list moderator volunteers as well.
>
> Me.
>
> Albino
>

Re: [PROPOSAL] Reinvigorate extension authors community

[Albino B Neto <bi...@apache.org>]

Hi.

On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 2:34 PM, Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
> 1) Create a new mailing list:  ooo-extensions@incubator.apache.org (or
> appdev@incubator.apache.org if we prefer).  I'll assert that the
> current mailing lists are inadequate for encouraging this community to
> thrive.  If they interact on ooo-dev then they are bombarded with 99%
> irrelevant posts, and if they gather on ooo-users then this will be
> disruptive to the end-user subscribers there.  Extension authors
> really are a distinct sub-community of their own.

I agree.

Demand for emails here on ooo-dev is great, a specific list for
API/extension will be better.

> 2) Promote the mailing list via the usual means:  website, social
> networking, maybe a blog post.
>
> 3) Try to contact the existing extension authors, to encourage them to
> joint the list.  I'd try to do this via SourceForge initially, since
> they might already have the means to send them all an email.
>
> 4) Promote AOO extension development in general, by interviews of
> extension authors, blog posts, perhaps even a rotating spot on our
> website featuring an "extension of the week" (or day).
>
> 5) Encourage this community to provide feedback to the project and
> help maintain the current app dev and SDK documentation, website and
> wiki.

Yeah!

We need listing more users. (:

> I'll need a couple more list moderator volunteers as well.

Me.

Albino

Re: [PROPOSAL] Reinvigorate extension authors community

[Juergen Schmidt <jo...@gmail.com>]

Am Mittwoch, 26. September 2012 um 19:34 schrieb Rob Weir:
> As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm shifting my focus more to
> the extended OpenOffice ecosystem rather than day-to-day release-cycle
> tasks. One of the things I'd like to push for is reinvigorating the
> application development community.
> 
> In the legacy project we supported extensions authors via a dedicated
> mailing list, a wiki, its own IRC channel, and of course the
> extensions repository website. Today we have very little of that
> active.
> 
> I'd like to breath some new life into this part of the ecosystem. Now
> that we have a steady heartbeat of releases, both delivered and
> planned, and a solid record of end-user downloads, it is easier to
> argue the value of developing extensions for OpenOffice. I'd like to
> help promote this side of the ecosystem via the following tasks:
> 
> 1) Create a new mailing list: ooo-extensions@incubator.apache.org (or
> appdev@incubator.apache.org if we prefer). I'll assert that the
> current mailing lists are inadequate for encouraging this community to
> thrive. If they interact on ooo-dev then they are bombarded with 99%
> irrelevant posts, and if they gather on ooo-users then this will be
> disruptive to the end-user subscribers there. Extension authors
> really are a distinct sub-community of their own.
> 
> 

we guided all subscribers of the former API and extensions mailing list on ooo-dev. I agree that the traffic here is high and maybe it's time for a separate list but I am not sure. But we can try it.  
> 
> 2) Promote the mailing list via the usual means: website, social
> networking, maybe a blog post.
> 
> 3) Try to contact the existing extension authors, to encourage them to
> joint the list. I'd try to do this via SourceForge initially, since
> they might already have the means to send them all an email.
> 
> 4) Promote AOO extension development in general, by interviews of
> extension authors, blog posts, perhaps even a rotating spot on our
> website featuring an "extension of the week" (or day).
> 
> 5) Encourage this community to provide feedback to the project and
> help maintain the current app dev and SDK documentation, website and
> wiki.
> 
> 

Most important is to improve the API's and the development tools to make extension development easier and more fun. 
For example it's motivating if you can run a wizard in an IDE in a few minutes and get as result a working extension skeleton that can be deployed already in the office. My favorite example is to create a completely working calc add-in in less than 5 minutes. A 100% working build-in function that users can call via the normal function dialog in the same way as any other function in calc.
Similar stuff with other wizards, the key point is to make the start easy and help developers to solve their tasks easy.

But of course a huge example collection, tutorials and good docu is important as well.

Juergen
> 
> If there are no objections to the above I'll go ahead with step 1 in
> 72 hours. I'll need a couple more list moderator volunteers as well.
> 
> And of course, if anyone wants to help with other parts of the above,
> or complimentary tasks, please let me know.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> -Rob 

Re: [PROPOSAL] Reinvigorate extension authors community

[Roberto Galoppini <rg...@geek.net>]

On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 7:34 PM, Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
> As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm shifting my focus more to
> the extended OpenOffice ecosystem rather than day-to-day release-cycle
> tasks.   One of the things I'd like to push for is reinvigorating the
> application development community.
>
> In the legacy project we supported extensions authors via a dedicated
> mailing list, a wiki, its own IRC channel, and of course the
> extensions repository website.  Today we have very little of that
> active.
>
> I'd like to breath some new life into this part of the ecosystem.  Now
> that we have a steady heartbeat of releases, both delivered and
> planned, and a solid record of end-user downloads, it is easier to
> argue the value of developing extensions for OpenOffice.  I'd like to
> help promote this side of the ecosystem via the following tasks:
>
> 1) Create a new mailing list:  ooo-extensions@incubator.apache.org (or
> appdev@incubator.apache.org if we prefer).  I'll assert that the
> current mailing lists are inadequate for encouraging this community to
> thrive.  If they interact on ooo-dev then they are bombarded with 99%
> irrelevant posts, and if they gather on ooo-users then this will be
> disruptive to the end-user subscribers there.  Extension authors
> really are a distinct sub-community of their own.
>
> 2) Promote the mailing list via the usual means:  website, social
> networking, maybe a blog post.
>
> 3) Try to contact the existing extension authors, to encourage them to
> joint the list.  I'd try to do this via SourceForge initially, since
> they might already have the means to send them all an email.

Sure. As you might remember we already sent a note to all Extensions'
and Templates' users at migration time, and we might do it again.


>
> 4) Promote AOO extension development in general, by interviews of
> extension authors, blog posts, perhaps even a rotating spot on our
> website featuring an "extension of the week" (or day).
>
> 5) Encourage this community to provide feedback to the project and
> help maintain the current app dev and SDK documentation, website and
> wiki.
>
> If there are no objections to the above I'll go ahead with step 1 in
> 72 hours.  I'll need a couple more list moderator volunteers as well.

I'm open to help.

Roberto

>
> And of course, if anyone wants to help with other parts of the above,
> or complimentary tasks, please let me know.
>
> Regards,
>
> -Rob

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