Hi Stefan, I just read this message, and I think this is a great move. So far, I have had excellent experience with Mercurial (hg), and I believe that a bunch of other Sun open source projects use it too. It also shares a similar command set with Subversion. Ubuntu is using bazar, bzr,and of course the kernel is using git.
I think it is great that openoffice/sun is consulting the core group of openoffice developers, but I would like suggest that the tone that comes across in the section "Participation in the Survey" just does not seem very friendly, nor welcoming to those that are new or minor contributors. I am quite sure that this was not your intent, and that your intent was simply communicate to the community that the way the systems have been configured, that only those with an openoffice.org address can offer direct input to the survey, and that other addresses won't work. My understanding is that only certain people that are invited to get an openoffice.org address/login can get this, and so this means that this survey is a very exclusive one. My suggestion would be to have some release valve for the greater to participate in the survey/consultation because what if the people who participate in the your private survey want <X> SCM system, but the larger community wants <Y> SCM system? My view that this would be an important consideration to take in to account for numerous reasons: leveraging greater community involvement, different perspective of the greater community of users, larger sample, maintaining (and promoting) a atmosphere and culture of community involvement, etc. I could think of more if I had more time, but I'm sure you see my what I'm getting at, the needs of the larger community may be different than those that are dedicated OO.org developers, and my view is that those needs should at the very least be consulted. One solution would be just to create an email address, or web form, and have other users go there, and even if nobody uses that facility, you have sent the message (indirectly, "between the lines") that you want to involve the community. The all you have to do at the end of the consultation period is skim through the replies. Please note that I worked as a communications and services coordinator for a Student Union, so I do have some experience with promoting community involvement with projects. Hope this makes sense, and I didn't step on anyone's toes. David 2009/3/12 Stefan Taxhet <stefan.tax...@sun.com> > Hi, > > The current version control system for OpenOffice.org source code is > Subversion (SVN). According to our plan we are going to be replace this > by a Distributed Software Configuration Management (DSCM) system. > > An evaluation has been presented in the March 2009 ESC meeting. > http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Image:Esc_dscm_evaluation.odp > http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Image:DSCM_evaluation_2009_03.odt > > During the ESC meeting it was suggested to consult the OpenOffice.org > contributors about experiences and preferences with version control > systems. The results will help us with the final decision. > The survey is open now and will close midnight UTC Thursday March 26. > > Participation in the Survey > 1. Click on the link below. You will be asked to enter your name and > your @openoffice.org email address. The email address is mandatory and > we will ignore any submissions from any other email addresses. > 2. An email will be sent to your @openoffice.org address containing a > link. Clicking on the link will take you to the survey system. > Note: if you do not receive the email, please check your spam filter! > 3. When you have made your choices, the system will send you a second > email to confirm that your selections have been stored. > > http://surveys.services.openoffice.org/surveys/index.php?sid=52123&lang=en > > Thanks > Stefan > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.org > > -- +------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Mobile | +44 (0) 755.269.4191 Email | da...@hackbinary.com Blog | blog.hackbinary.com Website | www.hackbinary.com I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. - J.B.S. Haldane +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
