On 1/10/07, Lourens Veen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Wednesday 10 January 2007 03:00, Timothy Miller wrote:
> While we're on the subject of organizational names, we may want to
> take this opportunity to have a look at our organizational structure.
>
> It is rather unusual for there to be three different names, perhaps
> suggesting three different groups, all being applied to what is
> really one project.
I'm not sure. There's the GNU project which creates software, the Free
Software Foundation that serves the interest of all free software, GNU
or not, and there is Red Hat, who sell support for free software, GNU
or not, and are independent of the FSF.
The only place where I see a discrepancy between what the naming
suggests and what the idea behind it is, is that by the sound of it,
Traversal Technology is to the OGP what Red Hat is to GNU, rather than
what the Mozilla Corporation is to the Mozilla Project. So if we're
having nutty ideas, perhaps TT could be renamed to Open Graphics
Corporation?
Don't think I haven't thought of that, but "Traversal Technology" is
so orthogonal to anything else, it doesn't grate on anyone's
sensibilities. Besides, to old-school business, Traversal needs to
put on an old-school business face. I chose the name intentionally to
make it look like we're traditional business, knowing full-well that
it would be a point of confusion for the Free side of things. That's
one reason why I haven't asked for a position in the OHF. I think
Andy was offered a board position, and I believe he asked for a
non-voting position for the same reasons.
> But is there really now any need for there to be a nebulous third
> entity that we currently call the Open Graphics Project? It has no
> legal status and doesn't need it, so it's served, for some time, as
> an umbrella. But the three names probably are cause for confusion,
> and we may want to simplify things.
Well, what else are you going to call the cloud of unaffiliated hardware
developers that work on the designs for graphics cards we're creating,
but are not employees of TT? They don't have much to do with Traversal
Technology, and they may not have anything to do with the OHF either.
It was just a thought. Plus, I really like the suggestion to name it
"Graphics Liberation Project."
However, I would really prefer the OHF to become mostly an "above the
fray" type organisation that worries about certification, promotion,
education, and so on. In the early stages, while the community is
small, the OHF may take a more hands-on approach and get involved with
the design and creation of hardware more directly (e.g. using donations
to provide a guaranteed minimum number of sales to TT, hiring people to
design hardware, and so on).
Yes. I like the way you explain it.
- The goal of the OGP is to create a Freely Usable* graphics card
design.
- The goal of TT is to sell Freely Usable graphics cards based on the
OGP design.
- The goal of the OHF is to promote the creation of Free Hardware
Designs, Free Design Hardware, and Freely Usable Hardware, all of which
are Free Software Compatible.
I can see clear alignment and overlap between OGP and TT, but not
necessarily between OHF and the others. And I think that it would
actually be good to have a bit of distance between the OHF and the
rest.
I withdraw my suggestion. :)
--
Timothy Miller
http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~millerti
_______________________________________________
Open-graphics mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics
List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
