On 7/17/12 6:03 PM, Rob Weir wrote: > I'd like to see if we can agree on a statement along these lines. I > think it is important that we show how our project aligns with > Apache's overall mission, which the apache.org home page phrases as: > "provides support for the Apache community of open-source software > projects, which provide software products for the public good." > > I think we do and always have been strongly aligned with this goal. > But still, sometimes, we're questioned about our emphasis on > distributing binaries, or seeking support for items related to > distributing binaries. In some ways we're the oddball at Apache, > being the only prominent end-user facing project. So I think it will > help if we can express in clear terms how what we are doing is in fact > for the public good, and our aims and achievements are at least as > noble as what any other Apache project can claim.
I totally agree and that is of course the most annoying point here at Apache for me. But that is another topic and not for this thread. > > Please, review and suggest improvements. In the end I'd like to work > this into a webpage or blog post. > see comments inline > Regards, > > -Rob > > -------------------------- > =Introduction= > > Along with an email client and a web browser, an office suite is a > core essential application that almost every computer user requires. > Although there is a dominant commercial product in this category, its > price and limited platform and language support makes it an > unsatisfactory option for many. OpenOffice, for over a decade, has > helped fill this gap. Our goal is to develop, publish and support > OpenOffice as a world-class office suite, free for anyone to use, and > since it is open source, free for anyone to build upon. Using the > generally available discounted price of commercial office products, > the value of OpenOffice downloads over the past decade exceeds USD 10 > billion (10,000,000,000), > I like this example calculation which makes the value of OpenOffice really visible. The number is so impressive that really everybody can understand it. > ==Overcoming the "Digital Divide"== > > More than 40% of the world population lives on less than US$ 2 per > day, and around 20% live on less than US$ 1 per day. Against these > numbers, commercial shrink-wrapped office software is often seen as a > luxury good. End-user facing open source software, like OpenOffice, > brings high-quality software to those who would otherwise have no > other affordable options. Within the ICT for Development (ICT4D) > community, OpenOffice has long been an important part of achieving > development goals. > > ==Support for Linguistic and Cultural Diversity== > > There are over 6,000 languages in the world, but unless the language > is associated with a G20 economic superpower, commercial vendors tend > to ignore it. The OpenOffice community has a long standing tradition > of supporting a large number of languages, including languages used by > smaller populations, minority languages, endangered languages, etc. > For example, South Africa has 11 official languages. OpenOffice has > been translated to all of them. By supporting languages that would > not otherwise be supported we help reduce "digital exclusion" and > promote development, local education and administration. > It shows me again how important it is to work for and with the l10n community to support all the languages where we had support before. I will start a campaign right after our 3.4.1 release drive this forward. > ==Accessibility== > > Persons with disabilities, especially those with visual impairments, > commonly rely on "assistive technology" to interact with computers. > Such technologies work well only when applications are designed and > coded to work well with them. Additionally, users who create > documents must do their part to ensure that the documents they create > work well with assistive technology, for example through the use of > image captions, consistent list levels, etc. OpenOffice provides > strong accessibility support, including broader ecosystem support via > extensions, for working with Braille printers, exporting to DAISY > talking books, etc. > > ==Open Standards== > > Open standards are those standards which are created in an open, > transparent process, where the specifications can be freely accessed > and implemented without royalties. Most core web standards are open > standards. The default document format in OpenOffice, OpenDocument > Format (ODF) is also an open standard. Widespread use of open > standards promotes interoperability and choice in the market. But > this does not come without effort on our part. We commit to faithful > implementation of open standards, and to work with standards > organizations and other vendors to improve these standards and to test > and improve interoperability. > As Donald mentioned already it might be worse to add a short paragraph about extensibility and the programability at all that helps to adapt OpenOffice to special needs, or integrate AOO in other important products. In general very nice Juergen
