Re: [vote] XMLBeans to enter XML incubation [was: Re: Vote for XMLBeans proposal in the XML Project (was RE: Vote for XMLBeans proposal)]

[Stefano Mazzocchi <st...@apache.org>]

on 7/8/03 12:56 PM Ted Leung wrote:

> +1
> 
> I am planning to meet Cliff Schimdt in person at OSCon later this week.  
> I will also be happy to be the official shepherd during incubation.

I fully trust both Steven's and Ted's "mentoring" abilities.

I'm happy that people like Andy keep the 'corporate paranoia' alarm on,
we have been harmed by this too much in the past, but I, like Greg,
sense the intention of doing good and work hard to pay off the benefit
of being part of the foundation.

But given my past experiences, I foresee one potential problem that I
would like to show, so that both the XMLBeans committers and the mentors
can start tuning their alarms for it.

First a few reminding statements:

 1) incubation is about judging the quality of community development in
the diverse open and meritocratic spirit of the ASF. It is *NOT* about
judging technical merits. We let Darwin take care of that because no
mentor, no ASF member should judge a technology being proposed, since
this might stop technological evolution.

 2) incubation is about protecting the foundation name from being
abused. it should *NOT* be tollerated that the companies behind the
incubated project use the apache name for marketing promotion without
indicating the incubation status of the project.

Now, I see one potential big risk: idea ownership.

Meritocracy is developed if there is openness to alternative thinking,
otherwise, it becomes oligarcy and it doesn't evolve. darwinistically
speaking, it simply dies out of lack of genetical mutation and
adaptability to the environment is too low.

I suggest the mentors to tune their community-dynamics sensors to this.

To the XMLBeans developers, expecially to the main architects, my
suggestion is different: allow diversity of opinion, allow people to
experiment, allow paths that you don't like to be tried out. You will
find out that the real value of open development is exactly this:
learning new things and understanding that, no matter how smart you are,
there is always somebody smarter than you. If you allow him/her in, they
will be part of your team, if not, they will be outside, probably
harming your community by removing energy from it.

being attached to your design ideas is more harmful that it seems and
not only because the foundation might cancel incubation and stop
development because of it, but also because it prevents you from
learning and growing, as developers and, more important, human beings.

Having said this, you get my +1

-- 
Stefano.



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