You are viewing a plain text version of this content. The canonical link for it is here.
Posted to commits@openoffice.apache.org by or...@apache.org on 2016/06/04 21:10:57 UTC

svn commit: r1746853 - /openoffice/pmc/BoardReportsArchive/2016-04-20-AOO-FINAL.txt

Author: orcmid
Date: Sat Jun  4 21:10:57 2016
New Revision: 1746853

URL: http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?rev=1746853&view=rev
Log:
The Apache OpenOffice Board Report in the Approved Minutes of the 2016-03-16 Board Meeting

Added:
    openoffice/pmc/BoardReportsArchive/2016-04-20-AOO-FINAL.txt   (with props)

Added: openoffice/pmc/BoardReportsArchive/2016-04-20-AOO-FINAL.txt
URL: http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/openoffice/pmc/BoardReportsArchive/2016-04-20-AOO-FINAL.txt?rev=1746853&view=auto
==============================================================================
--- openoffice/pmc/BoardReportsArchive/2016-04-20-AOO-FINAL.txt (added)
+++ openoffice/pmc/BoardReportsArchive/2016-04-20-AOO-FINAL.txt [UTF-8] Sat Jun  4 21:10:57 2016
@@ -0,0 +1,350 @@
+                    The Apache Software Foundation
+
+                  Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
+
+                            April 20, 2016
+
+ ABRIDGED VERSION PROVIDING THE COMPLETE APACHE OPENOFFICE BOARD REPORT
+       IN THE MINUTES AS APPROVED BY THE BOARD ON MAY 18, 2016
+                    Authoritative full version at
+<http://www.apache.org/foundation/records/minutes/2016/board_minutes_2016_04_20.txt>
+
+[ ... ]
+
+ 6. Committee Reports
+
+    Summary of Reports
+
+    [ ... ]
+
+    AS. Apache OpenOffice Project [Dennis E. Hamilton / Jim]
+
+       See Attachment AS
+
+[ ... ]
+
+============
+ATTACHMENTS:
+============
+
+[ ... ]
+
+-----------------------------------------
+Attachment AS: Report from the Apache OpenOffice Project  [Dennis E. Hamilton]
+
+DESCRIPTION
+===========
+
+Apache OpenOffice is an open-source office-document productivity
+suite.  There are six productivity applications based around the
+OpenDocument Format (ODF). With limited support for other formats,
+OpenOffice ships for several platforms and in dozens of
+languages.
+
+
+STATUS
+======
+
+The project is warming up for its next release, Apache OpenOffice 4.2.0.
+
+There is growing attention to security of dependencies and also ways to
+improve release engineering.
+
+Limitations of capacity and coordinating the project's moving parts are
+concerns.
+
+
+ISSUES FOR BOARD AWARENESS
+==========================
+
+Concerns and warning signs for Board attention are in the Issues section,
+below.
+
+RELEASES
+========
+
+There is no Apache OpenOffice release in this quarter. 
+
+Complete Release History
+  2015-10-28 4.1.2
+  2014-08-21 4.1.1
+  2014-04-29 4.1
+  2013-10-01 4.0.1
+  2013-07-17 4
+  2013-01-30 3.4.1 refresh (8 more languages)
+  2012-08-21 3.4.1 incubating
+  2012-05-08 3.4   incubating
+
+PMC/COMMITTERS
+==============
+
+PMC
+---
+
+The recognition and invitation of potential PMC members is improving and
+expected to continue.  Complete PMC membership history is available in PDF at
+<http://s.apache.org/vji>.
+
+The AOO PMC consists of 28 individuals as of 2016-03-31.  Eleven have
+registered PGP keys.
+
+   17 have remained continuously out of the
+      23 from TLP formation in October, 2012.
+   11 are new or returned PMC members
+
+    9 of the current PMC are Apache Software Foundation
+      Members, including the original and current Chairs
+
+  2016-03-05 Keith N. McNamara (knmc) joined the PMC
+  2016-02-29 Patricia Shanahan (pats) joined the PMC
+  2016-02-14 Carl Marcum (cmarcum) joined the PMC
+        The last preceding addition was on 2015-10-18
+
+   2016-01-28 Louis Suarez-Potts (louis) retired
+   2016-01-20 Rob Weir (robweir) retired
+       The last preceding retirement was on 2015-10-18
+       
+In this quarter, 87% of the 540 private@ posts were by PMC members.  Of those
+posts, 97% were by 10 members and 9 did not post at all.
+
+Committers
+----------
+
+There are 139 committers as of 2016-03-31.  Twenty-one have registered PGP
+keys.  The recognition and invitation of potential committers is improving 
+and expected to continue.
+
+   2016-02-25 Jon Peli Oleaga added
+   2016-02-23 Patricia Shanahan added
+       Last previous committer addition was on 2015-12-04
+
+   2016-01-28 Louis Suarez-Potts withdrew
+   2016-01-22 Jean Hollis Weber withdrew
+   2016-01-20 Rob Weir withdrew
+       Last previous committer withdrawal was on 2015-09-23
+   
+       
+ACTIVITY
+========
+
+Moving parts of the Apache OpenOffice project span three inter-connected
+layers. 
+
+ * Development, Release Engineering, and Deployment:
+   development, testing, internationalization, QA, documentation, deployment,
+   and branding
+  
+ * Project Community Lists and Archives:
+   development topics, user-facing information, user reports,
+   trouble-shooting, and feedback
+  
+ * Public Project-Community Interfaces
+   tying together development, users, and support areas:
+   Bugzilla, wiki (two flavors), web site (two flavors), and Community
+   Forums
+   
+Development and Release Engineering
+-----------------------------------
+
+Separate source-only release of UNO Tools for independent usage is 
+progressing.
+
+Maintainors of some writing aids (e.g., spelling checkers) provide regular
+updates for eventual release inclusion.
+
+Fixes for issues deferred from the 4.1.2 release are now retargeted for
+4.2.0.  Issues and fixes are flagged as part of warming-up for 4.2.0.  There
+is no projected release date.  SVN preparations for release-candidate 
+staging of 4.2.0 have not begun.
+
+Significant change to the build system are staged.  Updates to third-party 
+components incorporate their latest security fixes.
+
+A documented walkthrough of the Windows build process needs review.  Changing
+the build system requires updated documentation.
+
+Occasional newcomers want to work on the project.  The learning curve is 
+still steep, especially for Windows.  It is not unusual for new volunteers 
+to disappear after a short time.  
+
+Deployment and Take-Up
+----------------------
+
+For the five months since release of AOO 4.1.2 through 2016-03-31, 
+there are 19.9 million downloads, roughly 4.0 million per month
+at a rate of 800,000 per week.
+
+   87.9% for Windows,
+    7.8% for Macintosh, and
+    4.3% for all other distributions
+    
+Although US destinations have the greatest number of downloads by
+nationality, that represents only 15% of the total for this
+highly-international project.
+
+For comparison, release 4.1.1 binaries had been downloaded 48.1 million times
+over the 16 months of that release, roughly 4.3 million monthly at a rate of
+1 million per week.
+
+There is new management at SourceForge, the provider of Apache OpenOffice
+download mirrors, Extras archives, and third-party extensions and templates
+downloads.  There appears to be no impact.  There is serious improvement
+how advertising is separated on the download-starting page, reducing
+confusion about whether the download has been requested and will start 
+without any more clicking.
+
+Branding
+--------
+
+Trademark registration/renewal activity, coordinated with trademarks@,
+is underway.
+
+The project is not making any changes involving the new feather logo and
+powered-by graphics.
+
+There is typically one request for use of the marks each month, including a
+request this quarter for display of Apache OpenOffice as a prop in a
+French action-adventure television series.
+
+One misuse of Apache OpenOffice marks has been addressed with a publisher
+and acceptable remedies are in place.
+
+Major abuse of "OpenOffice" by an anonymous imposter is difficult to thwart.
+Effort is continuing with assistance of trademarks@.
+
+Community Lists and Archives
+----------------------------
+
+The tabulation below summarizes the average rate of mailing list usage for all
+of the public lists since Apache OpenOffice became a top-level project in
+November 2012.  The complete compilation of the data is in PDF at
+<https://s.apache.org/OHfh>.  The list is in decreasing order by 2015 
+activity.
+
+         LIST    AVERAGE MONTHLY ACTIVITY            
+               2012  2013  2014  2015 2016Q1
+
+         dev@  1266  1124   552   340  305
+       users@   235   198   328   219  231
+    users-de@    38   167   147    94  111
+   utenti-it@    29    40    30    37   27
+        i10n@   211   225   119    34   22
+          qa@   150   127    71    16   25
+         api@    30    35    20    15    2
+         doc@     7    41    25    12   36
+      dev-de@     0     0    42     6   12
+  general-es@    34    24     9     4    5
+   marketing@    63    87    18     3    5
+ progetto-it@    12    17     8     2    0
+    users-fr@     1     4     6     0    0
+  geral-ptbr@    21     5     1     0    0
+  general-ja@     3     2     0     0    0
+
+Bugzilla and Issue Tracking
+---------------------------
+
+Tabulation of Bugzilla issue growth extends to the end of 2016Q1.  The rate 
+of unresolved issues continues to be in excess of 40%.  The complete
+tabulation is at <http://s.apache.org/YFT>.  Qualitative analysis at
+<http://s.apache.org/SNg> applies.
+
+Wiki and Documentation
+----------------------
+
+In 2013Q1, a new documentation effort for an end-users manual was started on
+the OpenOffice MediaWiki.  That is the only user-documentation effort. 
+Material from an "OpenOffice for Students" was being incorporated.  As 
+reported in 2015Q1, documentation efffort stalled.
+
+New volunteers arrive regularly although concerted, sustained effort is
+absent.  
+
+There is much outdated material on the MediaWiki and changes in the product
+are not accompanied by coordinated documentation.
+
+
+ISSUES
+======
+
+Continued identification of risks and issues of capacity and
+capability is brought to public lists for discussion
+on the state of the project in the community.  
+
+Overall
+-------
+
+Newcomers to the developer, QA, and docs lists seek assignments the project
+lacks capacity to provide and mentor.  Newcomers appear eager though lacking
+project and product knowledge.
+
+Release Engineering
+-------------------
+
+Providing a faster maintenance-release cadence to pick up important 
+fixes has no support.
+
+The buildbot for Windows binaries has not been successful since 2015-07-28.
+This impairs QA testing and patch testing.  There is risk of regressions from
+changes that are developed and successfully applied to Linux and FreeBSD, the
+primary tools of the few active developers.
+
+The 4.1.2 release manager is going to work with one or more "interns" to 
+cultivate additional committers with experience at producing Apache 
+OpenOffice builds for the extensive set of binaries that are produced.  The
+4.2.0 release candidates will be the laboratory.  
+
+The project is vulnerable to inability to prepare candidates if release-
+engineering capacity deteriorates.
+
+Having enough PMC members to confirm builds from source to cover the different
+platform distributions is a concern.  Current CTR commits receive little if
+any visible indications of "R".  Requests for review can go unanswered.  One
+committer has refused to create Bugzilla issues to account for SVN changes.
+
+Deployment
+----------
+
+Proof of concept for digital signing of Windows builds was achieved in 2014.
+Signing is not in production. 
+
+Digital signing is crucial.  It allows the platform to verify that the binary
+installer is an unmodified authentic build from the project.  It assists 
+detection of counterfeits that drop adware and malware.
+
+NEXT STEPS: Explore prospects for changing to signed .msi Windows installers
+for 4.2.0 despite the compounding of changes and possible delays for 
+a feature release.  Seek ways to accomplish this in controlled steps.
+
+Branding
+--------
+
+Investigation of inappropriate use of Apache brands for OpenOffice occurs
+when brought to the attention of the PMC.  There are two cases this quarter. 
+There are difficulties in going farther.
+
+  1. The distributors of misleading products make it difficult to
+     remove offenders that are casually allowed to make misleading offers.
+     
+  2. The project is not pro-active in finding offenders and requesting
+     compliance with Apache brand usage.  In particular, "Open Office" is
+     heavily used and search services treat it as a synonym for "OpenOffice."
+     There appear to be over 100 AOO download/disc offers that claim the
+     need for advertising to support the "product" effort.
+     
+  3. Where paid advertisements accompany search results, these can have more
+     prominence than "Apache OpenOffice" results which otherwise rank highest.
+     
+  4. When contact is achieved, it can take considerable effort and
+     communication to have the producer honor Apache brands.  
+     
+NEXT STEPS: Find better templates for engaging producers of products that
+invite confusion with Apache OpenOffice.  Find ways to pursue such cases that
+do not overwhelm the capacity of the Project Management Committee to manage.
+Simplify the engagement of trademarks@, especially where distributors of
+third-party software impose friction in the acceptance of trademark
+violation complaints.
+
+[ ... ]
+
+------------------------------------------------------
+End of minutes for the April 20, 2016 board meeting.

Propchange: openoffice/pmc/BoardReportsArchive/2016-04-20-AOO-FINAL.txt
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    svn:eol-style = native

Propchange: openoffice/pmc/BoardReportsArchive/2016-04-20-AOO-FINAL.txt
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    svn:mime-type = text/plain;charset=UTF-8