[board-discuss] BoD decision from 2014-11-24
Hello, following our statutes, the board would like to make the following decision - taken in private as it saw a need for confidentiality - public now. Proposal: Approve the following budget items: Annual report marketing brochure in English: 20.000 EUR Budget for (potentially virtual / hetrogneous) load/save/validate regression testing capability: 15.000 EUR Administrative budget: 7.500 EUR Android version first phase: as previously approved Executive training for Florian: 5.000 EUR CeBit 2015: 10.000 EUR VNC server for daily builds: 2.000 EUR Usability metrics collection: client functionality + server tweaks + opt-in: 15.000 EUR Reenable crash reporter for Windows/Mac + analytics on data: 20.000 EUR Build competitive feature matrix of LibreOffice: 2.500 EUR The Board of Directors at the time of voting consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the vote needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4. A total of 7 Board of Directors members have participated in the vote. The vote is quorate. A quorum could be reached with a simple majority of 4 votes. Result of vote: The Board approved these budget items with 7 out of 7 votes: Thorsten Behrens, Eliane Domingos de Sousa, Adam Fyne, Joel Madero, Michael Meeks, Björn Michaelsen, Fridrich Štrba all supporting the proposal. Deputy members of the board Eike Rathke and Norbert Thiebaud also expressed their support for the proposal. Decision: The budget items below have been approved. This message is to be archived by the BoD members and their deputies. Florian -- Florian Effenberger, Executive Director (Geschäftsführer) Tel: +49 30 5557992-50 | Mail: flo...@documentfoundation.org The Document Foundation, Kurfürstendamm 188, 10707 Berlin, DE Gemeinnützige rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts Legal details: http://www.documentfoundation.org/imprint -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: board-discuss+unsubscr...@documentfoundation.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
[tdf-discuss] RfD: Non-corporate user representation?
Hi, AFAICS, TDF does not have any formal Joe Average user lobby. There are BoD, ESC, MC, AB - but the end user community only can send their opinions, needs and ideas to mailing lists or speak up informally in meetings. What about the idea of creating e.g. a User Interest Commitee (or board), which has an advisory role - similar to the AB? Could this help to better channelize / make visible the interests of normal users? There are highly competent people around in mailing lists and forums, who, at least to my believe, should be given a stronger voice than to just send a mail to a list. (I know, the big hurdle is to do it, but nevertheless wanted to express what I think/feel here as a starting point). Regards, Nino -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: discuss+unsubscr...@documentfoundation.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
Re: [tdf-discuss] RfD: Non-corporate user representation?
Hello Nino, Le 05.12.2014 11:37, Nino Novak a écrit : Hi, AFAICS, TDF does not have any formal Joe Average user lobby. There are BoD, ESC, MC, AB - but the end user community only can send their opinions, needs and ideas to mailing lists or speak up informally in meetings. Yes... why is that a problem? :-) the bodies you mentioned are bodies that are formed out of people or entities contributing something to the project. What about the idea of creating e.g. a User Interest Commitee (or board), which has an advisory role - similar to the AB? Could this help to better channelize / make visible the interests of normal users? This is a valid concern; so far we have options for feedback that are summarized here: http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/feedback/ but maybe we could check if these carry out the right information in an acceptable time. There are highly competent people around in mailing lists and forums, who, at least to my believe, should be given a stronger voice than to just send a mail to a list. Sure, they can contribute anything from bug reports to marketing materials, website bits, localizations, to code. (I know, the big hurdle is to do it, but nevertheless wanted to express what I think/feel here as a starting point).* What TDF has refrained from doing is precisely let the impression that if someone wants something, some developer will autmatically do it. We believe users can become contributors, and as such we try really hard to ensure anyone can join the project and its activities (but of course this can be improved!). However, advices for free is not something TDF and the project in general is interested in. Did you have a different process in mind? What would this user committee do specifically? Best, Charles. Regards, Nino -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: discuss+unsubscr...@documentfoundation.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
[tdf-discuss] Re: RfD: Non-corporate user representation?
Hi Charles, thanks for your reply :) Am 05.12.2014 um 15:30 schrieb Charles-H. Schulz: Le 05.12.2014 11:37, Nino Novak a écrit : Hi, AFAICS, TDF does not have any formal Joe Average user lobby. There are BoD, ESC, MC, AB - but the end user community only can send their opinions, needs and ideas to mailing lists or speak up informally in meetings. Yes... why is that a problem? :-) the bodies you mentioned are bodies that are formed out of people or entities contributing something to the project. This is not per se a problem, but here, the problem starts. You really seem to believe that somebody just using LibreOffice does not contribute anything. In my eyes, everybody downloading the software and starting to use it, *does* contribute. At least their time :-) For me this is somehow obvious. So my concern might come out of need of better appreciation of the simple user. In my eyes, they are part of the community, too - but without a voice, without a saying. Is this, what TDF stands for? What about the idea of creating e.g. a User Interest Commitee (or board), which has an advisory role - similar to the AB? Could this help to better channelize / make visible the interests of normal users? This is a valid concern; so far we have options for feedback that are summarized here: http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/feedback/ but maybe we could check if these carry out the right information in an acceptable time. What I'm giving here is also feedback ;-) There are highly competent people around in mailing lists and forums, who, at least to my believe, should be given a stronger voice than to just send a mail to a list. Sure, they can contribute anything from bug reports to marketing materials, website bits, localizations, to code. See above - how much do you value contributing by just using the software? (I know, the big hurdle is to do it, but nevertheless wanted to express what I think/feel here as a starting point).* What TDF has refrained from doing is precisely let the impression that if someone wants something, some developer will autmatically do it. Strange kind of thinking... I can't believe that TDF is gouverned by the fear of promising unrealistic dreams :-) My concern in contrast is that the project thus neglects a whole bunch of good will, possibliy good ideas, and potentially clever opinions. And in addition, maybe, also fruitful dialogs. We believe users can become contributors, and as such we try really hard to ensure anyone can join the project and its activities (but of course this can be improved!). However, advices for free is not something TDF and the project in general is interested in. Did you have a different process in mind? What would this user committee do specifically? Good question. A couple of answers... Appreciate the (needs of the) users... Listen to them... Give them a formal voice... Show officially that every single LibreOffice user is a valued contributor and per se member of the community (however not a formal member, sure, as formal members have kind of an access threshold which I do not question). It's probably indeed a question of appreciation. And of valuing a large group of small contributors. Something like that. However, I still don't know if it's a good idea. That's the reason I put it here for discussion: from my gut feeling it would sound good to have one (or a few) User Interest Representatives in one of the commitees/boards/whatever. Their duty could be to give their opinion to questions from the UX or ESC or QA (like should this button be renamed or not? or what default value should this option have? or something like that) or even pass them to the public and to wisely value the responses they get. And people like e.g. Brian Barker from the users list seem to be extremely sensitive to real needs of simple users, so why not ask for their input? BTW, asking for an opinion in my eyes even reduces the impression of implementing something automatically just if somebody says something - au contraire. It rather signalizes high sensitivity and responsibility by the questioner :-) So that's my idea - but it's just an idea, please take it as it is. It's just the idea of lifting the quality of the project yet a bit if simple users are given a formal advocate. It might be worth an experiment. Regards, Nino -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: discuss+unsubscr...@documentfoundation.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
Re: [tdf-discuss] Re: RfD: Non-corporate user representation?
Hello Nino, On 5 décembre 2014 17:13:09 CET, Nino Novak nn.l...@kflog.org wrote: Hi Charles, thanks for your reply :) Am 05.12.2014 um 15:30 schrieb Charles-H. Schulz: Le 05.12.2014 11:37, Nino Novak a écrit : Hi, AFAICS, TDF does not have any formal Joe Average user lobby. There are BoD, ESC, MC, AB - but the end user community only can send their opinions, needs and ideas to mailing lists or speak up informally in meetings. Yes... why is that a problem? :-) the bodies you mentioned are bodies that are formed out of people or entities contributing something to the project. This is not per se a problem, but here, the problem starts. You really seem to believe that somebody just using LibreOffice does not contribute anything. In my eyes, everybody downloading the software and starting to use it, *does* contribute. At least their time :-) For me this is somehow obvious. For me and others it is not. Contributors contributing time and users downloading the software are really different in their efforts. Making this distinction has allowed us to grow our community and our project in ways few people could think imaginable. The old OpenOffice.org project did not really make that distinction by the way and it was one of the factors that demotivated many actual and potential contributors. So my concern might come out of need of better appreciation of the simple user. In my eyes, they are part of the community, too - but without a voice, without a saying. Is this, what TDF stands for? TDF stands for its constant effort in building a great community who produces great software. Somewhere along the line wwe are happy to have LibreOffice be used by dozens of millions. They can have a voice through feedback and support channels. Not as contributors. What about the idea of creating e.g. a User Interest Commitee (or board), which has an advisory role - similar to the AB? Could this help to better channelize / make visible the interests of normal users? This is a valid concern; so far we have options for feedback that are summarized here: http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/feedback/ but maybe we could check if these carry out the right information in an acceptable time. What I'm giving here is also feedback ;-) There are highly competent people around in mailing lists and forums, who, at least to my believe, should be given a stronger voice than to just send a mail to a list. Sure, they can contribute anything from bug reports to marketing materials, website bits, localizations, to code. See above - how much do you value contributing by just using the software? At zero. Seriously very little value. And this is also why LibreOffice just like most other FOSS is available free of charge. (I know, the big hurdle is to do it, but nevertheless wanted to express what I think/feel here as a starting point).* What TDF has refrained from doing is precisely let the impression that if someone wants something, some developer will autmatically do it. Strange kind of thinking... I can't believe that TDF is gouverned by the fear of promising unrealistic dreams :-) :-) it is not governed by that. But it has learned its lessons from the past. My concern in contrast is that the project thus neglects a whole bunch of good will, possibliy good ideas, and potentially clever opinions. And in addition, maybe, also fruitful dialogs. We believe users can become contributors, and as such we try really hard to ensure anyone can join the project and its activities (but of course this can be improved!). However, advices for free is not something TDF and the project in general is interested in. Did you have a different process in mind? What would this user committee do specifically? Good question. A couple of answers... Appreciate the (needs of the) users... Listen to them... Give them a formal voice... Show officially that every single LibreOffice user is a valued contributor and per se member of the community (however not a formal member, sure, as formal members have kind of an access threshold which I do not question). Actually they don't. Members form the foundation but they do not have a priviledged access. Members decide on TDF and the way to become a member is by contributing. It's probably indeed a question of appreciation. And of valuing a large group of small contributors. Something like that. However, I still don't know if it's a good idea. That's the reason I put it here for discussion: from my gut feeling it would sound good to have one (or a few) User Interest Representatives in one of the commitees/boards/whatever. Their duty could be to give their opinion to questions from the UX or ESC or QA (like should this button be renamed So UX is really easy to join and so is QA. But aside polling people I think the real question would then be: how do we turn users into contributors? or not? or what default value should this option have? or something
