> Any kind of ideas are shot upon sight. This is not the way to form an > active community. My experience at OOoAuthors is an example of how a > distributed development, where peopole can take action quickly, actually > does quite well at getting To-Do's done. > > > What are the chances to achieve the goals and fulfill that mission if > > nobody tries to enroll first in doing the TO-DO list's tasks ? > > This is not a company, you can't assign volunteers to tasks. You have to > let people work on what they are motivated. If you want them to work on > something, the best you can do is try to show them why it's interesting > and why they would find the experience rewarding. Please listen to my talk > on INREACH, I discussed this issue precisely. > > > Anybody can easily discard what others have built and come with a new > > to-do list and strategy. > > You see, letting people try out ideas easily is not the same thing as > discarding the to-do list and strategy. Making a freakin business card is > not a strategy change. You can't treat every idea as if it where a major > change in policy at OOo. If you do, you get a stagmant project. > > > What if they all wished to implement their own strategy at once instead > > of taking a task and put their fingerprint on it and on how well it is > > done ? > > You have missed the difference between a strategy change, and a really > minor project idea. This is precisely the difference that I've tried to > point out on the native-lang list. Something that involves a change in > marketing strategy should go through a long and delicate process. > Something that is simple and minor shouldn't. > > > Frustration comes when you want to see immediate changes, and I feel it > > may also come when you cannot show to your friends and relatives: "Hey, > > I did that". > > No, that's not my motivation. Furthermore, trivial changes should be easy > to do. You can't treat every change as if it is a major shift in global > policy. > > > But how does it feel when the next day somebody else comes > > and want to change the same thing having a better idea after he/she sat > > and lurked at how you did it ? > > Fantastic. This procedure works WONDERS at OOoAuthors every day. Linus > also testifies that it works really well at the kernel, and Larry Wall is > insistent that it is the key to Perl's success. Thank you for bringing > that up. > > > > OK, see if this does not contradict with the strategy and then fight for > > your cause so that you see them added to the To-Do and then try to find > > members who would like to help you in accomplishing the task. Isn't this > > the right way ? > > No, it isn't the right way. Not at all. Not in the slightest. I'm sorry, > but minor changes should not be cut down in arbitrary layers of > bureocracy. The procedure you suggest would be understandable if you were > talking about a global change in marketing policy. But to do what you just > said every time anything at all is done is a guaranteed recipe for > failure. Btw, I notice you didn't add "posting an email to the list" to > the To-Do list before sending your post. > > > How would you feel if you were to manage this Community for a single day > > and how would you keep the overal direction of this ship straight ? > > (This is a question for those who have been around long enough) > > Please consider the insight offered by Linus Torvalds (Linux), Larry Wall > (Perl), Brian Behlendorf (Apache), and closer to home, me (OOoAuthors).
+1 Louis, all I know is this: I've been on this list for 1.5 years, actively participating most of that time, with the exception of a short period when the list fell into disputes about leadership. It just seems like -- and obviously not to just me -- that anytime something out-of-the-box is proposed, it's suddenly and immediately shoved into the box. Mozilla had to do something different (completely rewrite a browser -- i.e. firefox), against the wishes of the people in charge (as was spoken about at the DLS) -- I just hope that if a similar turning point comes for OOo, that a person isn't immediately shot down, discouraged, or slowed by the leadership of the project. Disclaimer: I mean no disrespect for anyone who's been around for a while, but I've felt this for a while, and seeing how unprepared we were, in general, as a project, for the DLS just opened my eyes to how difficult it is to get things done. -- Jason Faulkner ------------------------ OldOs.org Owner/Admin / http://oldos.org / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ Certified INGOTS Gold Assessor Trainer / http://www.theingots.org ------------------------ OpenOffice.org Marketing Volunteer / [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
