Hi Shereef, No worries - and I'm glad to hear you've recovered!
And it's fantastic news to hear - I'm really glad that you are going this way, as BetterMeans is such a promising project, we were frustrated to not be able to use it! About running the code and working on it - while I can't make any promise, I know by experience that if we switch to BetterMeans, we're really likely to want to fix bugs and add changes. It's a communication tool, and as such it takes a lifetime to get it right, so if we invest time and energy into putting one on our servers and using it, it just makes sense to go the extra mile to make it better, as we would benefit from it too. We're still too small to take a hard commitment, but I would be very eager to give back as much as I can (and actually not only through code production - I know NGOs who would welcome the news of having such a tool in Free Software, and would make them consider its adoption). One of the most important things to bring free software developers to contribute is the adoption of BetterMeans for the organization of large projects. Once it is under a free software license, I'll also be happy to help you with that in any way I can - as far as I was able to see, it seems just the perfect tool to run a free software project. Cheers - and congratz! Xavier. On Mon, 2011-04-18 at 21:19 -0400, Shereef Bishay wrote: > Xavier, > > Sorry for the long radio silence. > I was indeed in the hospital, but all is good now. > > We are seriously considering open sourcing bettermeans and giving the > code to the community. > We're looking to see there's a strong core of devs that would be > willing to take over the code base and run with it. > > Do you have experience doing that in the past? > Would you be interested in being part of a community that stewards the > code? > > cheers, > Shereef > > > > On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 4:37 AM, Xavier Antoviaque > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi, > > Not sure if you received that email - hopefully all is fine on > your side, I read that you were/are at the hospital Shereef, I > hope it's not too bad. :/ > > Cheers, > Xavier. > > -------- Forwarded Message -------- > From: Xavier Antoviaque <[email protected]> > To: Adele Burnes <[email protected]> > Cc: [email protected], Shereef Bishay <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Fwd: bettermeans and Farsides > Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:24:42 +0100 > > > On Wed, 2010-11-17 at 21:00 -0800, Adele Burnes wrote: > > I think this is the second email you are getting from me today, but > I > > just saw the note below and I had to respond - I love your social > > contract and all its values and principles - that is fantastic. > > Hi Adele, > > Thanks for your answer - and glad that you like our social contract. > : ) > Finding BetterMeans was a really good surprise, it doesn't happen that > often to meet another organization that upholds the Open Enterprise > values! > > Actually, I'm wondering if you came across other similar organizations > since your launch - I bet they were also very glad to find out about > BetterMeans! I've seen a few listed on > https://secure.bettermeans.com/projects , but I guess you've been > discussing with a few of them, and you probably have some further > insights. > > > I'm so glad that you have found Bettermeans, and I'm sorry that it > has > > taken so long to respond, unfortunately Shereef has been sick and I > > have been working hard to be responsive to everyone, but it has > been a > > wild week. > > No worries at all - I know how it can be sometimes : ) > > > I understand that us not being Open Source is a barrier for you. We > > struggled a lot with this questions and we settled on this: > > We're not open source, because we haven't figured out a business > model > > that sustains us and keeps our software open source. The moment we > do, > > we will open source the software. Meanwhile, we are focused on > opening > > up the org structures. If folks are passionate about opening up the > > bettermeans source, they can join us, and help us figure out how to > do > > it, and pay our bills. > > Yes, the fact that you are willing to look for a good way to do this > is > something I really appreciate - and I know that it can be tricky to > find > the right formula for a given project. > > I've been thinking a bit about potential business models that could > work > if you open source the code, but I bet you have given this a lot of > thinking yourselves. Is the discussion about this available somewhere > in > one of your workstreams? I can spend some time reading it, and > hopefully > contribute a few comments. > > > We remain, however, huge advocates for transparency. So while our > code > > is not FOSS, it is shared code. Anybody who joins us, and agrees to > > the open enterprise model, can see the code. On another note, our > main > > product is the Open Enterprise Governance Model. This is where a ton > > of the innovation and tweaking went, and that's what we're > passionate > > about ultimately, and we've chosen to license that as creative > commons > > because it furthers our mission for everyone to run this way. The > > software is just one strategy of getting it out there. > > Definitely - it's not only about the software, and the Open Enterprise > Governance Model is a great piece of work from what I've read so far - > congratulations for that! I haven't read everything yet, but I plan to > finish soon (btw, there are some formatting issues on > http://bettermeans.com/front/open_enterprise_governance_model.html - > if > you want I can fix them while I read it, just let me know what's the > best way to provide you with a diff). > > The software is still an important component though, especially when > it's used for the main communication channel - each project has > specific > requirements/processes and will likely need some specific adaptations, > and one needs to ensure it doesn't get its communication stream > trapped > in case if anything goes awry. But I won't give you a lecture on the > importance of open source, I guess you already know all that : ) > > > If you are interested in joining us in our work that would be > > fantastic! We are always looking for like-minded folks to > collaborate > > with. My understanding (as the not as technical person) is that > > getting started will take some code orientation, which we may have > to > > wait on Shereef for. However I'd love to speak with you and hear > about > > your interest, and I can tell you a bit more about our team and the > > direction we are going in. > > That would be great! As per our social contract, we would only be able > to contribute on open source code, but if at the end we find a way to > achieve that I would be definitely interested. Actually, this would > need > to be discussed on our end, but we could maybe even sponsor some of > the > improvements, with manpower or money. We are not rich, but if other > projects did the same, this could actually be a lead to find a way to > open source the code - by asking projects that use the software to > sponsor the items in your workstream that they would like to see > implemented. > > Xavier. > > > > > > > > > -- > bettermeans.com > open, democratic, decentralized > > social enterprise management > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Farsides mailing list - [email protected] > > Wiki: http://farsides.com/ > List: http://farsides.com/ml/ > Forum: http://farsides.com/forum/ > Ideas: http://farsides.com/ideas/ > Chat: http://farsides.com/chat/
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