The policy implications may be broader than you've summarized below. I read the draft disclaimer and I like it. But I'm not convinced that a disclaimer is sufficient when Apache identifies people or companies who can help with AOO unless there is also a statement of our right, in our sole discretion, to remove any listing that does not conform to AOO community standards (whatever those are?).
Is there a standard by which you can remove someone from the list? Is this an opportunity for a job listing board rather than for Apache itself to manage? /Larry Lawrence Rosen Rosenlaw & Einschlag, a technology law firm (www.rosenlaw.com) 3001 King Ranch Rd., Ukiah, CA 95482 Office: 707-485-1242 -----Original Message----- From: Donald Whytock [mailto:dwhyt...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 2:04 PM To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org Subject: Re: Call for comments: Webpage for Listing OpenOffice Consultants Still suggesting some sort of expiration mechanism (perhaps a timestamp in the entry, with a scheduled job to prune), so this doesn't become a barnacle colony. Don On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 4:58 PM, Rob Weir <robw...@apache.org> wrote: > Another one of those "larger ecosystem" things I'll be pushing on. > > If you recall the legacy OpenOffice.org project had a webpage that > listed various consultants who provided services for OpenOffice. We > took it down because it was very out of date and we didn't have time > (at that time) to figure out the policy implications and update the > content. Well guess what? I have time now. > > ====> A draft of a proposed approach is on the wiki here: > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OOOUSERS/Draft+--+Apache+O > penOffice+Consultants+Directory > <==== > > I'm working on the XSLT script now. Looking good so far. > > If you read the wiki you'll see the policy implications are minimal: > We'll be fair and accept all relevant submitted listings, provided > they don't abuse ASF trademarks, I don't think we need more than > that, but adding more is certainly easy enough. > > Note also the disclaimer on the wiki, which I'll repeat here. As a > non-profit we need to be careful about how we intersect with > commercial activities. I think this is sufficient, but changes are > easy to make. > > "Disclaimer: Although most individual users are able to download and > use Apache OpenOffice without any help, or with the assistance of > volunteers on our Forums and mailing lists, some users, especially > corporate users, may have more complex requirements that require > commercial services in order to optimize their deployments. The > following individuals and firms offer services that may be of > interest. The information provided here was provided by the entities > named here, and is not verified or endorsed by the Apache OpenOffice > project. We offer these listings as a service to the ecosystem." > > If there are no objections to this general approach, I'll proceed as follows: > > 1) Write up a definition of the requirements for the input XML file. > XML Schema and plain English definition, for use by consultants > submitting us listings > > 2) Draft a webpage giving info on how consultants can submit a > listing. Would list technical and policy requirements. > > 3) Complete XSLT scripts and get them checked in. > > 4) Get this all onto the website into a test directory for review. > Perhaps we seed it with initial data from project members who provide > services, so we have something at launch time other than fake data. > > 5) Once approved, we go live. The legacy project buried this under > the "support" page, but I think we should offer a more prominent > location, perhaps a link on the home page. > > 6) Promote via blog, social networking, etc. > > 7) PMC reviews incoming submissions, etc. Routine maintenance. > > Note: this same approach (Submission instructions page + XML/XSLT to > generate user-facing XHTML page) would also work very nicely for a CD > Distributor listing page. It should be possible to copy this > approach, including the XSLT script, even including this note, and > with some modifications reuse it for that purpose. > > Regards, > > -Rob
