Greetings all,
My name is Graham Lauder AKA Yorick or Yo. I've been involved with OOo
for a number of years mainly in the marketing project but also in the
website project. I am somewhat responsible (some would say to blame)
for the look of the present front page, (although I was just responsible
for the conceptual elements, Maarten, Kay, Ivan and others did the real
work and improved vastly on my original idea).
I am MarCon (Marketing Contact) for New Zealand
http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html and have been since 2004
or so, (I'm not good with specific dates).
I am a software trainer to Enterprise specialising in OOo and OSS on the
desktop for Front Office End Users I would like to be able to say that
this keeps me fully occupied but unfortunately that would be a
garnishing of the truth that would stand little scrutiny and so one must
whore oneself at other less meaningful work in order to do the real work
when the opportunity arises.
Previous to OOo I was CEO/MD of my own company for 15 years, retiring in
2003. (I should add: a retirement which only managed to last 4 years!)
I was ambivalent at the beginning of the the Oracle gift to Apache
process. I remained with OOo post the LibreOffice fork because I
believe that the fork in the initial stages was done more for control
than anything else and that was born out of frustration in the community
and a distrust of Oracle's motives with regard to the future of OOo.
Distrust that would at first, seem to have a reasonable basis given
later actions and statements. Then reinforced with the gift in concert
with IBM. I also didn't think that all the avenues within the existing
project had been exhausted sufficiently to warrant dividing the
community. Having said that I was not involved at the heart of the
decision making process that led to LO so I may be incorrect in my
assumptions and it is true that now the LO community feels they are the
authors of their own destiny, something that they have never felt in the
past, even under Suns time.
However I am committed to the long term existence of OOo, thus the
reason I put my hand up early here.
My hope is that the reasons that the LibreOffice fork happened don't
rear their ugly heads here. I noted an earlier email exchange with Rob
Weir where he was denying IBM corporate power in the project. I would
point out that this is a meritocracy and the currency in a meritocracy
is time. If IBM (or any Corporate) allows employees to contribute on
company time then that, in a meritocracy, gifts power to the corporate
employees and therefore to that corporate because they are unlikely to
step off the corporate line on Company time and certainly are not going
to do anything that could be construed as against the companies
interests.
So the question is: Will decisions be made at IBM that will translate
into fait accompli in OOo simply because the IBM members of the
community have been given the time to contribute to Apache, above and
beyond those of us who can afford only a number of hours outside of work
time?
Time equals power in a meritocracy.
Now having said all that, Corporate contribution is the reason I
remained with OOo. I have always held the belief that a project the
size of OOo is best held in a corporate/community partnership. SUN's
stewardship wasn't perfect but it had a hell of a lot going for it and I
believe it was developing further and further to more community based
decision-making, so it's good to see the old SUN name's popping up on
the lists.
For the future I would like to see a reconnection with the LO people.
LibreOffice however, will continue to grow because the community feels
it has control and there are trust issues with IBM. As someone remarked
on an LO maillist: Who stands to benefit the most from an OOo with an
Apache License, and who stood up first waving a carefully crafted press
release. (They took previously, under the old SISSL and contributed
nothing back.) so I can understand the suspicion.
We in the OOo community have swallowed the bitter pill where a
benevolent organisation is corrupted by a corporate to their own ends,
all within that organisations rules. I hope it doesn't happen here.
However I view the future with a positive outlook and I look forward to
this new iteration of OOo and will do everything possible to aid in it's
growth.
Cheers
GL
--
Graham Lauder,
OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ
http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html
OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant.
.
