charles.h.sch...@gmail.com wrote on 06/02/2011 11:16:45 AM:

> I do have a question though. To me it's unclear whether the Openoffice
> project has any real development ressources. I see so far one developer 
and
> Rob, who I know to be a distinguished engineer from IBM but who has 
never
> contributed code to OpenOffice, if I recall. I'm a bit surprised by this 
as
> TDF has now over 200 developers, paid and unpaid and I was under the
> impression that this number was not deemed to be enough by IBM.
> 

Charles,  You should be looking at the wiki version of the proposal, which 
is updated as additional people sign up and add their name:

http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/OpenOfficeProposal

If you are seeing only two names then it sounds like you are looking at 
the ODT version of the proposal that was initially posted and then pasted 
into the wiki. 

But since this is around the third time today that I've seen LibreOffice 
members question my credentials, I'd like to gently remind the LibreOffice 
guests on this list that my name being near the top of the proposed 
committer list is merely expressing a chronological fact.  I was one of 
the first individuals to sign up.  Nothing more. It does not mean that 
I've been picked for any special distinction or that have any special 
prerogatives in this project. 

But since you question it, I'll mention briefly my bona fides:

1) Please note that I'm a Senior Technical Staff Member at IBM, not a 
Distinguished Engineer.  I work for a living ;-)

2) I've been coding in C++ for 25 years, before it was a standard, and in 
Java since it first was called Java.

3) I've coded on Lotus SmartSuite years ago, but also worked on various 
IBM efforts to componetize these editors over the years, in projects 
called eSuite and DevPack.  These editor components were done both in 
activeX as well as Java. 

4) I chair the OASIS ODF Technical Committee, the group that owns the 
document format standard that OpenOffice (and LibreOffice) use as the 
default.  In my role as chair, and through my outreach, I've helped us 
more than double the membership of that committee.  I can handle 
differences of opinion.  As chair I've had to manage not only the frequent 
squabbles between Novel and Sun over the years (of which our current 
debates seem to be an echo), but also participation by Google, Microsoft, 
Nokia, KDE, AbiWord as well as many valued independent participants.

5) I'm architect for the Simple Java API for ODF at the ODF Toolkit Union, 
Java code, leading the design of that project, which is under the Apache 
2.0 license. 

6) I've been an active member of OpenOffice.org Conferences for many years 
now (since Lyon in what? 2005?  2006?) giving untold numbers of 
presentations and helping organize ODF interop workshops.

7) Less visible publicly is the work I do within IBM on technical 
direction related to "smart documents" and next generation editor 
functionality, 
working with the Symphony and LotusLive Symphony team, talking to 
customers, especially public sector.

So am I an active coder on OpenOffice.org?  No.  I never said I was.  But 
I am looking forward to contribute to Apache OpenOffice.  I'd like to 
think that I have a perspective and set of skills that would be valued in 
a project like this.  I'd like to think that 20+ years experience in 
exactly this area counts, perhaps in some very small way, in the full 
generosity of your opinion, as "real development resources".

-Rob

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