Friends, Earlier this year,[1] we held an emergency meeting whose purpose was to clarify the position of the NLC leads regarding changes made to OOo and to see about being included as early as possible in the process deciding those changes. It was understood by all that as Sun largely determines the shape of SO/OOo (OOo being the same codebase as SO), that we would have to negotiate with Sun marketing directly.
Late April, after numerous delays, an initial meeting was held by Erwin Tenhumbeg, Young Song, Iyer Venkatesan, and me, to discuss how to proceed. Iyer and Erwin are product managers involved with StarOffice and OOo; Young of course works with the l10n groups. This meeting, though, which focused on the NLC communities, goes beyond them. The meeting was quite positive. We all want to include more of the community in deciding OOo's shape and roadmap. Equally, we also recognize the need of structure for any such inclusion. Because discussions on OOo affect StarOffice, and vice versa, we must approach the issue of including community input very early on carefully. NDAs may very well be needed for discussions that involve StarOffice marketing. StarOffice is of course a proprietary application and its roadmap and future is a thing of competitive interest. Meanwhile, OOo's efforts to systematize community interest in enhancements (RFEs) has stalled, as many are probably aware, though we are trying to get things going again. We made some attempts in this regard late last year but lack of interest and meaningful progress (and the holidays) arrested that development. So, a couple of proposals. 1. First, that we re-initiate the discussion of handling community input for 3.0. It's too early to set a date for when we should do this by, but it makes sense to start thinking of it. (Why is it too early? Because there is no good sense even of what 3.0 will look like.) For background, Sun has not previously included community input so early. Last year's Q-Concept document was issued after most major decisions had been made. It was a step in the right direction; this process is a much greater step. This proposal, of course, spans the breadth of the project, and is not specific to the NLC and the overall logic should be articulated by the ESC and CC. But we can start thinking about it in [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2. Second, and this proposal can work within #1 above, we discussed a model where representatives of the NLC leads might meet directly with StarOffice marketing and product management leads. The idea is to represent to SO product management the desires of the NLC users. As mentioned above, representative leads may have to sign NDAs with Sun, as they would be discussing proprietary information with the company. The second point is at best a half-way solution. I would prefer #1, of course, as it conforms with OSS ideals. But let's be pragmatic. What is needed now is for the application in development address the needs of major users, and the most major users are, i believe, represented by the NLC communities. What #2 provides is a way for the many users represented by the NLC to have their voices heard. It's not as democratic as #1 above, however, and should not be seen as a complete solution; it is a temporary compromise. But I think we should consider it. What to do now? I'd like for the NLC leads to consider this proposal. For number 1, we--the entire project but especially the proddev team--needs to devise protocols for managing RFEs, etc., and can discuss those in [EMAIL PROTECTED] But, please, read the archives, first. [2] [1] <http://native-lang.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=dev&msgNo=4404> [2] <http://marketing.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=proddev > Cheers, Louis --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
