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Posted to dev@openoffice.apache.org by "Dennis E. Hamilton" <de...@acm.org> on 2016/02/15 22:15:41 UTC
Food for Thought
<https://communitywiki.org/DoOcracy>
The Apache OpenOffice project, and other Apache projects, are more like do-ocracies than any other form of project governance. The distinct karma for committers and also PMC members is fundamentally related to the Foundation requirements concerning IP provenance of project code bases and other artifacts, although that is often referred to as a meritocracy arrangement.
For example, no one on the Apache OpenOffice project has executive authority, although there are particular accountabilities for committers, PMC members, and the PMC Chair (who is an officer of the Foundation).
For another example, there are no assignments to give out or ways other than suggestion and recommendation to direct effort. This is probably what is most confusing to outsiders and also to the many advocates for AOO who would like to see particular expressed needs met.
-- Dennis E. Hamilton
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RE: Food for Thought
Posted by "Dennis E. Hamilton" <de...@acm.org>.
+1
Thank you Michael
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RA Stehmann [mailto:anwalt@rechtsanwalt-stehmann.de]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 01:44
> To: dev@openoffice.apache.org
> Subject: Re: Food for Thought
>
> On 15.02.2016 23:14, Patricia Shanahan wrote:
>
>
> > The typical AOO user is a Windows-using non-programmer. I found just
> > building AOO on Windows a challenging two week project, for which I
> > needed a lot of help, despite prior familiarity with Subversion and
> > Cygwin. As a practical matter, most people who need a bug fixed to
> make
> > AOO useful to them simply do not have the option of taking it into
> their
> > own hands.
> >
> > Incidentally, that cultural difference may affect the severity of data
> > loss bugs. I find someone working for an extended period on a document
> > with no revision control or off-site backup a little shocking at first
> > sight. Then I realized I learned about the importance of revision
> > control and off-site backup on the job, not in my non-programming
> life.
> >
> > Maybe it would be helpful for the PMC to select a very, very short
> "Most
> > wanted" list, based on user requests, feedback at conferences etc.
> That
> > would help new AOO recruits pick a focus.
>
> There are two differences between AOO and most of the other Apache
> projects.
>
> The first is a technical one: The huge size of the code.
>
> The second is a "social" one: AOO is an enduser project, and not a
> project developing code used by it-professionals. Patricia described it
> well above.
>
> So AOO has to find a special "Apache Way" of doing things proper.
>
> I'm a living example for that: I'm a member of the PMC without ever
> having written a single line of code for AOO (Shame on me ;-) ). I
> think, you won't find such cases in other Apache PMCs.
>
> For an OpenOffice supporter it is quite normal doing other things than
> developing the code: Doing QA, documentation, translation, user support
> and training, extensions, so called marketing etc.
>
> So we have to find procedures, how all these people with different
> functions can collaborate in a proper way.
>
> Just a little more "Food for Thought".
>
> Kind regards
> Michael
>
>
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Re: Food for Thought
Posted by RA Stehmann <an...@rechtsanwalt-stehmann.de>.
On 15.02.2016 23:14, Patricia Shanahan wrote:
> The typical AOO user is a Windows-using non-programmer. I found just
> building AOO on Windows a challenging two week project, for which I
> needed a lot of help, despite prior familiarity with Subversion and
> Cygwin. As a practical matter, most people who need a bug fixed to make
> AOO useful to them simply do not have the option of taking it into their
> own hands.
>
> Incidentally, that cultural difference may affect the severity of data
> loss bugs. I find someone working for an extended period on a document
> with no revision control or off-site backup a little shocking at first
> sight. Then I realized I learned about the importance of revision
> control and off-site backup on the job, not in my non-programming life.
>
> Maybe it would be helpful for the PMC to select a very, very short "Most
> wanted" list, based on user requests, feedback at conferences etc. That
> would help new AOO recruits pick a focus.
There are two differences between AOO and most of the other Apache projects.
The first is a technical one: The huge size of the code.
The second is a "social" one: AOO is an enduser project, and not a
project developing code used by it-professionals. Patricia described it
well above.
So AOO has to find a special "Apache Way" of doing things proper.
I'm a living example for that: I'm a member of the PMC without ever
having written a single line of code for AOO (Shame on me ;-) ). I
think, you won't find such cases in other Apache PMCs.
For an OpenOffice supporter it is quite normal doing other things than
developing the code: Doing QA, documentation, translation, user support
and training, extensions, so called marketing etc.
So we have to find procedures, how all these people with different
functions can collaborate in a proper way.
Just a little more "Food for Thought".
Kind regards
Michael
Re: Food for Thought
Posted by Patricia Shanahan <pa...@acm.org>.
On 2/15/2016 1:15 PM, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:
> <https://communitywiki.org/DoOcracy>
>
> The Apache OpenOffice project, and other Apache projects, are more
> like do-ocracies than any other form of project governance. The
> distinct karma for committers and also PMC members is fundamentally
> related to the Foundation requirements concerning IP provenance of
> project code bases and other artifacts, although that is often
> referred to as a meritocracy arrangement.
>
> For example, no one on the Apache OpenOffice project has executive
> authority, although there are particular accountabilities for
> committers, PMC members, and the PMC Chair (who is an officer of the
> Foundation).
>
> For another example, there are no assignments to give out or ways
> other than suggestion and recommendation to direct effort. This is
> probably what is most confusing to outsiders and also to the many
> advocates for AOO who would like to see particular expressed needs
> met.
>
I think this may be more confusing for AOO than for many projects
because most users are not in a position to join the do-ocracy.
My other OO project, Apache River, is a system that is written in Java
and primarily used by Java programmers. A user who wants a particular
bug fixed has the option of checking out the source code and developing
their own fix. Many other OO projects are written in Language X by and
for X programmers.
The typical AOO user is a Windows-using non-programmer. I found just
building AOO on Windows a challenging two week project, for which I
needed a lot of help, despite prior familiarity with Subversion and
Cygwin. As a practical matter, most people who need a bug fixed to make
AOO useful to them simply do not have the option of taking it into their
own hands.
Incidentally, that cultural difference may affect the severity of data
loss bugs. I find someone working for an extended period on a document
with no revision control or off-site backup a little shocking at first
sight. Then I realized I learned about the importance of revision
control and off-site backup on the job, not in my non-programming life.
Maybe it would be helpful for the PMC to select a very, very short "Most
wanted" list, based on user requests, feedback at conferences etc. That
would help new AOO recruits pick a focus.
Patricia
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