I can actually answer part of this question somewhat definitively:
On 2011-11-18 9:07 PM, MiguelAngel wrote:
El 19/11/11 0:50, Rob Weir escribió:
On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 6:23 PM, Louis Suárez-Potts
<lsuarezpo...@gmail.com> wrote:
<snip>
I pretty much did the initial draft of the page and set the logic of
what counted as "participate" and "contribute". And I was raked over
the coals by the United Developers of the World who critiqued my
conflation of any old contribution with sophisticated development.
Point taken, they were right, I was wrong, but the point was to grow
the project and to thus justify its existence. Development would come,
once the market was established.
So now we are here. What do we want out of this? Do we want to re-do
the strategy of yore and expand the market?
Hi Louis, I was making a much narrower point, that if I were looking
to donate cash to an open source project, I would not think to look
under a link that read "I want to participate". That was my only
point. I wasn't expressing an opinion on code versus other forms of
participation. We need and welcome volunteers of all kinds.
-Rob
Hi Louis, Rob,
Please, who is ** we **?
Maybe can be misunderstood.
Miguel Ángel
The we in "We need and welcome volunteers of all kinds" refers to the
Apache OpenOffice PPMC and it's set of active committers on this mailing
list.
I think this is another significant difference between how the previous
OpenOffice.org project ran, and how the Apache OpenOffice podling runs.
From discussion here and elsewhere, it's clear that in the past there
were a *lot* of people who claimed various relationships with the
previous OpenOffice.org project. Then, as now, it wasn't often clear
what, specifically, those relationships were, or who could
authoritatively speak on behalf of the project (well, in that case,
various projects, like education, calc, marketing, etc. etc.)
For Apache OpenOffice, the governance is clear: PPMC members vote on
releases and new committers, and may, in consultation with the PPMC,
speak about the project with some authority. All committers may checkin
code and make proposals for the direction of the project.
Contributors on Apache OpenOffice are welcomed, and encouraged to
participate more by submitting patches, ideas, proposals, and whatever
else you can think of that would help. But they are not officially part
of the project and may not speak on the project's behalf.
Separately, the idea of "admins", "leads", and various other titles from
the previous OpenOffice.org project is no more. Apache OpenOffice has
PPMC members, committers, and now - while it's in incubation - mentors.
There are no other titles normally given out at Apache projects, nor
are there *any* long-term titles for Apache projects other than a PMC
chair (which is after AOO graduates).
Justin Erenkrantz' presentation about the Apache Way has a great way to
think about leadership in Apache projects:
"Whomever has the best idea 'leads'... until a better idea is presented
to the group, and then that new person 'leads'."
- Shane, AOO mentor
