On Wed, 2005-03-23 at 03:15, Simon Phipps wrote: > I didn't see that, no - I wish I could have spoken to her. If that's > the reason it's a huge shame - as I mentioned in my keynotes at the two > OOCon events (and will again in Canberra), the "Sun sells out to > Microsoft" conspiracy theory is massively overstated. If the minimal > level of relationship Sun now has with Microsoft is offensive then > those offended need to immediately become IT hermits as Sun has the > least relationship with them of any major IT vendor I know (see this > for example > http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/xseries/windows/about.html) even > if that's hard to believe given the propaganda saying the opposite.
I endorse that whole-heartedly. To be blunt if there are shortcomings its more cock-up than conspiracy in most cases. I do believe as I stated on the social list, there are inevitable tensions in the OpenOffice.org project due to the classic FLOSS development model on the one side and the classic corporate structure on the other. I guess its sort of like a cathedral with a bazaar set up in the car park, but without the cathedral there is no place for the stalls and without the bazaar the cathedral attracts fewer and fewer worshippers. Since both are dependent on each other we really have to learn to live together and negotiate the best for both parties trying to understand the perspective of each. A rich source of politics :-) It is important that the high priests from the Cathedral visit the Bazaar regularly otherwise the parishoners will see them as remote aliens who have no real interest in them and the collection plates will then dwindle. Most of the "E" in the community is developed from confidence in the project so it is important to actively maintain it. I'd say that was the most important role of the project leads and senior staff in Sun in fact. There is too great a tendancy to ignore this and treat systems and instrumental factors as if they were the only thing that really mattered. Very common in technological cultures, but its the people in the community that really get things done, not machines or systems, they just help. -- Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ZMS Ltd --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
