Hi Graham, nice meeting you here gain.
Peter On 03.07.2011 10:44, Graham Lauder wrote:
Greetings all, My name is Graham Lauder AKA Yorick or Yo. I've been involved with OOo for a number of years mainly in the marketing project but also in the website project. I am somewhat responsible (some would say to blame) for the look of the present front page, (although I was just responsible for the conceptual elements, Maarten, Kay, Ivan and others did the real work and improved vastly on my original idea). I am MarCon (Marketing Contact) for New Zealand http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html and have been since 2004 or so, (I'm not good with specific dates). I am a software trainer to Enterprise specialising in OOo and OSS on the desktop for Front Office End Users I would like to be able to say that this keeps me fully occupied but unfortunately that would be a garnishing of the truth that would stand little scrutiny and so one must whore oneself at other less meaningful work in order to do the real work when the opportunity arises. Previous to OOo I was CEO/MD of my own company for 15 years, retiring in 2003. (I should add: a retirement which only managed to last 4 years!) I was ambivalent at the beginning of the the Oracle gift to Apache process. I remained with OOo post the LibreOffice fork because I believe that the fork in the initial stages was done more for control than anything else and that was born out of frustration in the community and a distrust of Oracle's motives with regard to the future of OOo. Distrust that would at first, seem to have a reasonable basis given later actions and statements. Then reinforced with the gift in concert with IBM. I also didn't think that all the avenues within the existing project had been exhausted sufficiently to warrant dividing the community. Having said that I was not involved at the heart of the decision making process that led to LO so I may be incorrect in my assumptions and it is true that now the LO community feels they are the authors of their own destiny, something that they have never felt in the past, even under Suns time. However I am committed to the long term existence of OOo, thus the reason I put my hand up early here. My hope is that the reasons that the LibreOffice fork happened don't rear their ugly heads here. I noted an earlier email exchange with Rob Weir where he was denying IBM corporate power in the project. I would point out that this is a meritocracy and the currency in a meritocracy is time. If IBM (or any Corporate) allows employees to contribute on company time then that, in a meritocracy, gifts power to the corporate employees and therefore to that corporate because they are unlikely to step off the corporate line on Company time and certainly are not going to do anything that could be construed as against the companies interests. So the question is: Will decisions be made at IBM that will translate into fait accompli in OOo simply because the IBM members of the community have been given the time to contribute to Apache, above and beyond those of us who can afford only a number of hours outside of work time? Time equals power in a meritocracy. Now having said all that, Corporate contribution is the reason I remained with OOo. I have always held the belief that a project the size of OOo is best held in a corporate/community partnership. SUN's stewardship wasn't perfect but it had a hell of a lot going for it and I believe it was developing further and further to more community based decision-making, so it's good to see the old SUN name's popping up on the lists. For the future I would like to see a reconnection with the LO people. LibreOffice however, will continue to grow because the community feels it has control and there are trust issues with IBM. As someone remarked on an LO maillist: Who stands to benefit the most from an OOo with an Apache License, and who stood up first waving a carefully crafted press release. (They took previously, under the old SISSL and contributed nothing back.).... so I can understand the suspicion. We in the OOo community have swallowed the bitter pill where a benevolent organisation is corrupted by a corporate to their own ends, all within that organisations rules. I hope it doesn't happen here. However I view the future with a positive outlook and I look forward to this new iteration of OOo and will do everything possible to aid in it's growth. Cheers GL
