Florian, I fully support what you wrote.
That's it. Ciao Paolo On 10/07/2020 12:12, Florian Effenberger wrote: > Hello, > > first and foremost, thanks a lot to everyone for taking on the > challenging task to work on a marketing plan. I am sure this was not > easy, so thanks to all of you for your work on this - and thanks to > the board for the transparent communication in public! > > With all the feedback received, I strongly propose to leave 7.0 > without tagging and finalize the plan for a later release. > > Let’s use this time to come to a conclusion here in public, hear the > community members and find something that works for everyone. First, I > doubt we will achieve something positive if we rush things through. > Second, adding one tag in 7.0 and then change it to another tag in 7.1 > is likely to cause confusion. Third, the demand is to have something > durable (the plan covers 2020-2025), something to rely on that doesn't > change all of the time. > > > Timeline: > > To have a concrete timeline, I would have proposed 7.0.3 for a final > decision, not only because enterprises likely rather deploy .0.3 over > .0.0, but also because it will be published around our annual > LibreOffice Conference in October, and as such provides a good > messaging opportunity. However, I understand UI changes in minor > versions are not a good idea, so 7.1 might be a better choice. > > I know there are concerns this would delay things infinitely and > nothing will happen, but I sincerely do hope we have some options > between a rock and a hard place. :-) That means driving forward a > concrete timeline with deadlines, to not let this topic slip out of > sight. > > > Personal vs. Community: > > If I absolutely had to decide between “Personal Edition” and > “Community Edition”, I would clearly favor the latter. > > The name “Personal” excludes even small educational organizations, > which are a part as per slide 29. It also excludes small NGOs - > thinking of the local street worker office with two volunteers, or the > youth care facility that hosts lots of FLOSS events, or the little > kindergarten in town. Also, thinking of all the other fellow FLOSS > organizations or other smaller foundations who likely prepare their > annual filings (which are also “strategic documents”) with LibreOffice > - would we want to discourage them from using TDF-provided LibreOffice > for their association tasks? > > Personal to me means for the individual use only. A personal website, > in comparison to the website of the NGO I work for. A personal bank > account, in comparison to an association one's. Now I acknowledge we > don't talk about a legal license condition for LibreOffice, but about > the framing and messaging - but still, I think “Personal” sets the > frame too strict. > > Also, if we go to universities for the budgeted campus ambassador > program, with the above wording, even using in smaller working groups > (“I show you how to write your final thesis with LibreOffice”) could > sound to be discouraged. > > I know the plan is to draw a line somewhere, but the above, at least > for a non-native speaker, feels quite narrow. > > Then, I also received feedback that “Community” can be read as an open > core model or there’s no understanding in the general public what an > open source community is, so it might be worth rethinking this as well > - which is why 7.0, to be published in a month from now, is on too > short notice for introducing a tag. > > > Relevance of Statutes and Regulations: > > In course of the discussion, also the statutes were mentioned several > times. Although I know their history and their ideas quite well, I > don’t think the discussion is so much about regulations already at > this point - much more important is the mutual understanding of what > we want. From that point on, let’s see what we can do. We all grow and > learn, regulations change, and more than once TDF has shown it’s will > and ability to fight for good things. I want to contribute that we can > have this discussion in the same positive and creating spirit. > > > Explanatory Texts: > > Next to the tagging, also the various texts need to be agreed on and > translated, like in the start center, the about dialog and the start > center sidebar - and the same thoughts as for the actual tagging > apply, how strict should the frame be set. > > Legally, the license permits that organizations can use LibreOffice > without contributing back - in the end, it’s free software. They do > what the license allows them. We can't forbid it. > > What we want to do is to very strongly encourage them, convince them, > make things clear to them, because the project can only survive if > there is sufficient funding, and the ecosystem is one of several key > parameters for the success of TDF - we wouldn't be where we are > without all of you, all of the community. > > I find it much easier to celebrate things with a positive message than > with a negative. As such, I seriously doubt we will convince people > and bring across a good message if we communicate with too strong > words. Positive wording and directions are always better than > negative. And I think it's also much easier for the community to > communicate that. Maybe we tried with messaging that was not > successful so far, fair enough, so let's improve the message, but I > would like to work on a positive framing, than on a negative one. > > TDF is no different in this regard! We ourselves, we use lots of free > software as an organization - be it for web, database, file services, > mail, chat, conferencing and other servers. We have the skills > in-house and we often rely on pre-compiled binaries from free software > projects. We do contribute back e.g. by supporting upstream > development, doing advocacy and working together on a common goal. > > We don’t do this because of strong taglines and texts, but because > we’re convinced of doing something good to the benefit of many, making > improvements for us and others, achieving a common goal. Contributing > and being a "good citizen" can be done in various ways. > > It’s this message I would like to transport also for LibreOffice. > > In the end, I trust the marketing team, I trust the board, I trust the > community - and I’m sure our collective wisdom will bring up what is > best for the project. > > I know constructive discussions in public are not trivial and can be > really demanding, especially on such an obviously emotional topic. > Part of the positive progress we do make is also exactly this > discussion - working together constructively, positively and creating > things is what will set, literally, the foundation for the next decade > of our Foundation, and everyone who is part of the ecosystem around it. > > Florian > -- Paolo Vecchi - Deputy Member of the Board of Directors The Document Foundation, Kurfürstendamm 188, 10707 Berlin, DE Gemeinnützige rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts Legal details: https://www.documentfoundation.org/imprint
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