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Ian Lynch wrote:
On Sun, 2005-06-26 at 19:12 -0700, Andrew Swerdlow wrote:
Hi my name is Andrew, I just have a few questions which I could not quite
find on the web site.
I understand that you are very busy, I am doing a report on your project and
need some more information (if this is the wrong email address to send this
to, could you please direct it to the right source):
1) Does the project have formal requirements processes? If so can you
please describe the process (eg how they are added, removed, who decides
which requirements get developed and which do not, how are requirements
documented?).
The project is broken down into smaller units each with a project lead
and co-lead. Generally the project leads will decide in consultation
with the community what goes into or is taken out of the project they
lead. The project lead/co-lead organisation is documented on the
website. Issuezilla is one of the main means of recording and
ducumenting general project requirements, bugs, bug fixes, requests for
enhancements etc. The mailing lists also record discussions etc and are
archived.
2) Your project is extremely successful (more than most commercial
projects). What would you say are the key factors for the success of your
project?
Its Open Source is the fundamental one. This is an individual opinion
but if it was just another office suite with paid for closed source
licensing, no matter how good it was it would not have generated the
interest. Other factors are:
Its good enough for what most people need and getting better
It provides a sense of community and commitment in its volunteers that
surpasses that of people working just for the money.
It provides Open XML based document format
Its cross platform
Its relatively easy to localise in any language including minority
languages
It has good import/export for proprietary file formats
While it has some shortcomings compared to the market leader it also has
some features such as direct pdf export that are better.
3) How can I contribute code to the project? (what is the process)
Contact the project lead of the project you have relevant code for and
say what it is. Whether the code is accepted or not will depend on its
quality. If you are well-known to the project and your work is a known
quantity its likely that it will get accepted quicker than if you are an
unknown quantity. Before contacting the relevant project lead (they are
busy people) you might discuss your work on the development mailing list
first so you know that what you have really is of value to the project.
Normally this type of discussion would take place before you started
writing the code.
4) what is the organizational structure of the organization? (is everyone
volunteer?, who is the leader? Ect)
Louis Suarez-Potts is the community manager. Some project leads are
volunteers - eg Marketing Project. Some project leads are paid by a
sponsor eg Sun.
There is also a Community Council that in extreme cases has the power to
remove a project lead.
--
Peter Kupfer -- Using OOo since 'OO4 -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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