@Rayna sure, I just have some commitments today, I will start writing about that tomorrow.
@soliman you aren't alone in this, I'm sure most of people on this mailing list are. --- Please execuse my brevity/typos. Sent from my mobile device. --- Ahmed Mekkawy CEO | Founder www.SpirulaSystems.com On Dec 30, 2013 6:47 PM, "Ahmed Soliman" <[email protected]> wrote: > +1 > > P.S: I really thought that OpenEgypt was dead! > -- > Ahmed Soliman > Sent with Airmail > > On December 30, 2013 at 6:18:40 PM, Rayna > ([email protected]<//[email protected]>) > wrote: > > Hi Ahmed and al, > > Thank you for the email, Ahmed. Many of us have been there, very few have > been brave enough to face the situation. > > Since it's going on the opening up way, why not sharing all these things > you say have remained behind closed doors? :) > > Rayna > > > 2013/12/30 Ahmed Mekkawy <[email protected]> > >> Hi everybody, >> >> I was thinking about the evolving of the FOSS movement in Egypt and my >> contribution to it. Not that I was thinking about how good I did, but about >> what wrong did I do. It then stroke me lots of mistakes that seemed small >> then, but combining them showed me that I was actually deviating the >> direction I should have followed. My only good thing that I was doing this >> not for my personal benefit, but with the intention of speeding it up in >> rough times in Egypt. Anyway this still doesn't seem to be a fair deal for >> the idea, or for the FOSS communities and believers. In this email I will >> try to show it up, for the sake of the things I violated. >> >> FOSS is about collaboration, transparency, and equal opportunity. These >> are the real values that derives the four freedoms and the open source >> definition. These are what ensures users freedom through many >> implementation techniques in the models I am aware of, free software and >> open source software. >> >> I will start when I became one of the three admins in EGLUG, the LUG was >> pretty much dying then - and still is -. Though it had great legacy and >> even greater charter, but the effort needed for bringing it up was huge. I >> was more or less the main player then, everyone else was either busy or >> exhausted from the previous years. I was actually suggesting, modifying, >> and executing the activities and sometimes even the discussions. True that >> the LUG did some good activities at that time, but the outcome wasn't a >> sustainable entity. Symptoms were showing pretty obvious back then: all >> activities were in Alex were I lived, and I was in the heart of all of >> them. Tried to create a second line LUGgers, but I failed. >> >> What did I miss there? That was my first mistake, losing collaboration. >> That was something that the original creators of EGLUG focused on, and I >> failed to sustain. This didn't show up much cause the LUG was dying anyway >> and I gave it a last minute life kiss, and it worked for few years. So >> everyone was thankful and I didn't have enough criticism to stop me from >> what I was doing. >> >> My next encounter was creating my private company, where I made mistakes >> as well but let's keep this email focused about community work for now. >> >> Then it was the revolution, and the first meeting for me with the late >> Dr. Ali Shaath and the immediate support by Dr. Naglaa Rizk. That was when >> we decided to create the Egyptian Open Source Forum (EOSF) as suggested by >> Ali. Again he was seeing clearly it's about collaboration. Then the name >> changed, and it became OpenEgypt. At first few meetings, a governmental >> entity tried to claim credit for unifying the FOSS community in a public >> speech, two other NGOs tried to make OpenEgypt a subsidiary (I'm not >> questioning their intentions though). And we were expecting to be >> penetrated by all kind of entities soon, which partially happened later. >> >> After few meetings, it was clear that formulating a strategy in such big >> circle and trying to involve everyone including the ones who don't have >> strategic vision is more of a waste of time. We needed a small circle to >> draft, and the big crowd to feedback and evaluate. So it was decided to >> have a small number that play both roles, to work on the strategy and be >> the founders of the NGO. The idea of the NGO is to have an official entity >> that can address the government, deal with other Egyptian or international >> entities. It was chosen to be in the most opened legal form available, and >> planned for the founders to lose control quickly: half of them to be normal >> members after 3 years, and the rest after another 3 years. This is the >> quickest way in the Egyptian law. All of this planning was good IMHO, >> especially that there was a call for founders on the public mailing list. >> >> Anyway the mistakes started from then, the criteria of founders selection >> wasn't public, the names of the chosen founders were not declared in >> public. While the founders were trying to address ministries and other >> entities for FOSS directions, the community which we claim to work for its >> benefit didn't know anything about it. >> >> >> Another more major setback in transparency was forming MCIT's strategy >> group. MCIT called for a group to draft a strategy towards FOSS. Though >> it's logical that such choice is to be behind closed doors due to the >> government's nature - though we didn't make a better job in choosing >> OpenEgypt's founders -, but it wasn't logical not to tell the community >> about the forming of such consultancy group. The community knew after the >> protest of Micro$oft's deal with the Egyptian government. Moreover, we >> succeeded in convincing MCIT to involve the community, but such involvement >> kept with few who we knew personally and the leaders of the FOSS groups. >> Such failure in keeping effective horizontal flow of information was >> setting back our potential, if not worse. >> >> Even when we chose someone from the community to play the role of full >> time coordinator, we failed to communicate that clearly to the community as >> well. >> >> Though I was encouraging the community involvement in few situations, but >> I didn't do enough effort to make sure it happens. >> >> Such problems doesn't usually stay as is, either it grows exponentially >> or it fades away. Unfortunately the first one happened till it reached >> within the founders team. Let me quote some phrases from emails I got: >> >> - So I was out without even knowing? >> >> - I can't comment on something I haven't seen yet. >> >> - We'd better call this "Closed Egypt". >> >> - This isn't the professional - not even the ethical - way to do it. >> >> - Is OpenEgypt still alive? I thought it's dead already. >> >> I personally hold responsibility of the majority of this, as I'm the only >> one from the early founders who is still heavily involved with the FOSS >> communities. I should have known better how to do it the FOSS way. I was >> thrilled to work on strategies and big scale that I almost forgot how to do >> it right. >> >> The phrase that did actually hit me, was when I was talking with another >> respectable founder about creating a non-technical group (something not >> relevant to OpenEgypt) and I told him we need someone visionary who can >> drive this, his reply was "I thought you'd want to do it the FOSS way, by >> building bottom up". What hit me isn't the phrase, but it was that I >> actually believed that it shouldn't fly that way. >> >> Why I'm saying this? Cause I believe that sharing such criticism openly >> is a good thing to do. At least it can help someone not to make these >> mistakes. I do see that I was violating the concept for the sake of large >> scale implementation. This means that my compass is pointing the wrong way. >> >> >> So here's the deal: I will continue working on what I'm currently on, >> while committing to two things. First I will increase my verbosity level, >> mainly on the official OpenEgypt communication methods. Second is that I >> will try to delegate as much as I can to everyone, and what I can't >> delegate I will involve others. I'm not sure I can do this in 100% of what >> I do, but I'll try it to be the majority. What I'm asking in return is that >> you get involved, feedback me, criticize me, call me publicly to step back. >> I will be thankful for all that even if I don't show it. >> >> If anyone got feedback or suggestion, please tell me. If not just wish me >> luck and discard this email. >> >> Sorry for the extra long email. >> ---- >> Ahmed Mekkawy >> CTO | Founder >> Spirula Systems >> www.spirulasystems.com >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "OpenEgypt" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> > > > > -- > "Change l'ordre du monde plutôt que tes désirs." > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "OpenEgypt" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "OpenEgypt" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "OpenEgypt" group. 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