We are just one month into being the Apache OpenOffice.org Podling. It is
useful to interesting to take stock of all that is happening and where we are.
The main activity that we are all holding our breath over is the reconstitution
of the code base under Apache. There is also concern for the documentation and
web sites and how they fit under an Apache umbrella.
Depending on their interests and specialties, not everyone here is immediately
able to contribute much. We are in the process of organizing and bringing over
and IP-scrubbing the initial artifacts for the project that will be the
foundation for further work. There is not much to get our teeth into in terms
of actual development until that is sorted out. (E.g., we don't have a bug
tracker yet and the documentation, localization, and user-facing folk,
including marketing, are still wondering how our project will accommodate them.)
Meanwhile, there is also how we organize ourselves to operate as an Apache
project.
- Dennis
1. BOOTSTRAPPING COMMITTERS AND THE PPMC
2. HOW LONG IS THE OPEN DOOR OPEN?
3. WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO BE A COMMITTER AS TIME GOES ON?
4. WHEN BEING MORE PRIVATE THAN PRIVATE IS IMPORTANT
1. BOOTSTRAPPING COMMITTERS AND THE PPMC
The set of Initial Committers is a self-selected group who added their names to
the Initial Committers list on the original incubator proposal. That's how the
podling is bootstrapped. Likewise, ooo-dev participation is fully
self-selected, and it will stay that way.
This means that we are a group of people who have not worked together as a
single Apache project community before, even though there are a variety of
mutual acquaintances and associations in the mix.
Of the Initial Committers, a subset were eager to be on the project and have
arrived. That is the overwhelming source of the current 54 committers, 41 also
being on the PPMC.
2. HOW LONG IS THE OPEN DOOR OPEN?
There are still about two-dozen Initial Committers who have not yet registered
an iCLA. We don't know if they are arriving or not. One issue is when to close
the door on initial committers who have taken no initiative to be here,
although reminders have been sent out.
It is also the case that all initial committers are welcome to participate in
the PPMC but not all have taken action to do so. At some point, the PPMC will
not grow automatically and that also needs to be resolved.
3. WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO BE A COMMITTER AS TIME GOES ON?
We vote on other committers the same as any [P]PMC. The addition of two
invited committers has already been reported.
One thing that concerns the PPMC (who, for all but two members, walked through
an open door) is how and when do we move from consideration of previous
reputation and being known to some of us to a situation where contribution on
the podling is the determining factor. We're working our way through that.
The PPMC is also concerned that, although the addition of new committers and
new PPMC members is carried out in private, we be transparent about how we are
conducting ourselves and that we demonstrate that we are even-handed about it.
It is not clear what the ooo-dev community wants to see and what the understood
progression to the normal rules for invitation of committers should be.
4. WHEN BEING MORE PRIVATE THAN PRIVATE IS IMPORTANT
The PPMC is responsible for dealing, quietly and privately, with security
matters and their resolution. The security@ team informs us that because we
have so many members who are unknown here and also to each other at this point,
a limited [email protected] list is essential. We need to
identify those few among us who have appropriate skills and sensibilities
around security matters and who can keep their work secret when that is
appropriate.
For this, we want to know who has been on the security teams of OpenOffice.org
and who happen to be here also. There will also be cross-communication with
other security teams that operate on the same code base, or in some cases, that
operate on the same document formats.
We will be going ahead with the creation of the private ooo-security list for
that purpose. What we are waiting for is identification of three moderators
who are distributed around the earth's time zones well enough to provide
moderation of incoming reports in something approximating 24/7 coverage.
[end]
