OSAF and the Chandler project are going through some big transitions.
Yesterday, January 7, we restructured the organization. This is the
biggest change since the inception of project six and a half years ago.
In September 2007 we delivered a Preview release of Chandler Desktop,
Chandler Server and the Chandler Hub web application. Since then we’ve
been gradually acquiring users and building a community of people
interested in the project. We now have hundreds of people participating
in our users mailing list and thousands of users downloading Chandler
and creating accounts on Chandler Hub.
Chandler is an open source, standards-based calendar and task manager
built around small group collaboration and a core set of information
management workflows modeled on Inbox usage patterns. Users manage and
share calendars, tasks, messages, and notes with the Chandler Desktop
application and with the Chandler Hub web application.
The next phase of the project is about growing the user base, building
the community, and diversifying our funding sources. OSAF has been
primarily funded by one person up to this point, Mitch Kapor. Our goal
going forward is to modify our organization and our funding model to
grow into a publicly supported community project, not propelled by one
individual.
I will be leading the next phase of the project, and Mitch will be
winding down his role on the project. Mitch will provide transitional
financial assistance to support the organization through 2008. Mitch
will step down from the board, and I will replace him.
OSAF will maintain a smaller staff during the next phase of the project.
While figuring out the new funding model, it is prudent for the
organization to reduce expenses. OSAF’s paid staff will go from 27
people to 10 people. While I expect that most former staff members will
move on to other endeavors, we certainly welcome them to remain involved
with OSAF and Chandler in some capacity. Developers will retain commit
privileges, for example.
Strategically, we find ourselves at a crossroads. The new Chandler team
will continue to address the needs of informal groups sharing calendars
and managing projects together. We’ve gotten a lot of great feedback
from our current users, and intend to use that to fix usability problems
and shape the next set of feature work. We have several options before
us and will be ironing out a more focused plan for the next phase. We
will keep everyone updated on this blog.
The Chandler team did a fantastic job shipping the Preview release.
Building on this accomplishment, the project has many great
possibilities ahead. While saddened to see such a great team come to an
end, I’m excited about the project’s opportunities and looking forward
to next chapter.
Katie
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