You may have seen today's announcement :) Before the day closes -- I *still* have to finish my presentation for tomorrow!! -- I want give a quick note to my fellow TomEE creators on what I hope Tomitribe means for all of you.
This week last year I quietly left IBM after 7 years to do something I thought was critical, vital, and ultimately had to be done. It was a hard decision and one that took quite a long while to make. I worked with wonderful people, on open source, was handsomely paid and traveled the world. So why on earth would I leave such an amazing job? To be quite honest, I want those same things for everyone here. I am offered amazing jobs and opportunities all the time -- some pretty difficult ones to turn down. Some TomEE related some Java EE or other related. In fact there've been a few big names sniffing around this project. Try as I might, though, I was never able to get those offers extended to people in this community who I feel work just as hard and are just as important. My dream is to work with all of you as much as possible. It became abundantly clear to me that the only way this would be possible is if I made it happen. It isn't my natural inclination to do this kind of thing and I've found I've grown quite a lot over the last year from the challenge pulling this into existence. It has taken significant amount of my time away from actual development, but the sacrifice is worth it if it can mean more time for all of you some day. We all love this project, want more time to devote to it and to those who use it, and I'm not stopping till I can make that happen. I've had the joy of working on open source on a near full-time basis for over 10 years and nothing has brought me more joy than the times when there are many active faces all pitching in. It isn't the software I love, it's the community, it's you. People have already started to get mistaken, saying "So Tomitribe created TomEE?" My answer is no, you have it backwards. TomEE created Tomitribe. Tomitribe isn't going to be a 50 person company over night, but I hope with all of your support we can get there. Open source is ultimately an act of optimism and sacrifice. You've given so much to this project and I want to give back. You deserve it. -David
