Now getting back to the OFBiz project goal, I'm going to have to ever so slightly disagree with our goal stopping there. While I agree that OFBiz is a comprehensive enterprise information automation system - and I'm WAY stoked to be working on it - I think that OFBiz is FAR more than just a framework that people use to build applications. In fact if OFBiz is just a framework - than what application out there that takes some configuration (note that I didn't say customization) isn't?
Personally, I think looking at the stated goals that you and Ean came up with at the conference - I actually fall closer to that camp as to where I think that OFBiz has the potential of going. I look at this project and it's future and I see the best God damn ERP system out there! Once we are able to complete some of the applications that we have all been thinking about putting into the project:
1. Project Management 2. CRM 3. SFA 4. Full Financials Package 5. Human Resources 6. Automated Customer Service / Knowledge Base 7. Fully Featured Content ManagementWe will have a system unlike anything out there. Something that fulfills what people are looking for in an ERP system - but with the added bonus that you CAN build other applications on top.
My two cents - let's rally around this one. Cheers, Tim -- Tim Ruppert HotWax Media http://www.hotwaxmedia.com o:801.649.6594 f:801.649.6595 On May 18, 2007, at 9:55 PM, David E Jones wrote:
This is an interesting question... and one that should probably be discussed frequently as things tend to change over time.In general though the goal of OFBiz is as stated on the home page. It is meant to be a comprehensive enterprise information automation system. The core of the project is intended to include a general framework for efficiently building applications, plus a complete set of applications (data model, services, UI elements) to automate general business processes and support "most of what most companies need to operate". On top of those we also have (and plan to have more of) a number of more "special purpose" applications that are used for specific types of users or organizations.The stuff that Jacopo quoted below was meant to tie into the "World Domination" joke that was part of the JavaOne presentation. In other words, it was a little tongue-in-cheek. Of course, these things could really happen, and we're certainly on a growth curve and that may lead to these things.Like you mentioned Jacopo, how much and how soon this happens will depend on how much contribute to the project.The real key for that is pretty simple. If everyone who offers services based on OFBiz, or who extends or customizes OFBiz for their organization, or who create derivative works (open source or commercial) would follow a little three step process whenever they develop something, the project would have (with the current community, as I estimate it from the hip) around 20-30 times the involvement it does now (in SVN, Jira, mailing lists, etc). Here is the little three step process:1. identify what is general or makes sense to parameterize and what is specific to their requirements 2. implement the general or easily parameterizable elements and contribute them to the open source project (which will soon result in streamlining that by the people involved becoming committers and PMC members) 3. configure or extend the functionality in OFBiz to meet requirements being pursuedThe only reason OFBiz exists right now is that there are a number of people and organizations who do this now, and have done this for a number of years.It does require a little bit more work to do this, but mostly just when getting started with and used to doing things this way. In the long run because things are better thought out and more reusable for current and future projects this actually results in far less work, and not by a little, but rather by a LOT!So, there's my attempt at food for thought... and discussion. -David Jacopo Cappellato wrote:Hi,in my opinion the community and the OFBiz project in general will greatly benefit if we explicitly define and publish (in the main page of the site) a general, ambitious goal for the project. Of course, each and every single step in the direction of reaching the goal will be uncertain and undefined in its details and will mostly depend on contributor's efforts, sponsors etc...However the final long term goal should be clearly defined.I think that we should start from the great plan that David prepared for the Java ONE conference:"- The Next 6 Years- First Year: Complete build out of enterprise applications for OOTB use by a wide variety of organizations - In 2 Years: the market leader for medium and large scale retail applications (ecommerce and POS) - In 4 Years: more installed ERP seats than SAP and more CRM seats than Siebel and SalesForce.com- In 6 Years: 20% of global economic activity managed with OFBiz" What do you think about this? Jacopo
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