Ian Laurenson wrote:
The current proposal of having the authors decide, to me, is a recipe
for disaster. Putting aside the concerns of the OOo Community Council
for a moment, let me pose a scenario:
Person A has put a lot of effort into writing and maintaining a chapter.
Person B is new and tentatively suggests a few changes. Person A rejects
those changes so that Person B doesn't have a say on the proceeds of the
sale of the chapter. Person B leaves feeling discouraged.
As I think this scenario shows, to me the current proposal is not
detrimental to the broader OOo community but also to the OOoAuthors
community.
This scenario is pure fantasy. I have consistently said that "the
members of OOoAuthors" will decide how the money is to be spent.
Where do you get the idea that someone's contribution (or not) to
a specific chapter would affect whether or not they have a say in
the proceeds of the sales of the books? Indeed, I have not
suggested that only the authors of a specific book (as listed on
the copyright page) would be the ones to decide about that
specific book, though that IMO would be a perfectly reasonable
way to do it. Nor have I suggested that only people with Author
status have a say, though that would also be perfectly reasonable.
Are you saying you think it's detrimental to the broader OOo
community by having only OOoAuthors members, not the wider
community, decide on the use of the proceeds?
Does the wider community have a say in how the money donated to
TeamOOo is spent? If it does, that's great, but can someone
please tell me how I (or any of us) can participate in that
decision, because I am unaware of it.
Do you think it would have been better if Friends of OpenDocument
Inc had decided to *not* give the members of OOoAuthors a say in
the use of the profits? Then your scenario, and any variations,
would be completely irrelevant.
Jean
