Hello David:
Would it be possible to get download counts?
Here's an interesting statistic I'd like to share with the list:
Although I've only been providing my free download document for the last
5 months or so, I've seen more activity since the New Year (that would
be in the last 18 days) then any other 2 months combined. By activity I
mean a user fills out the survey and then downloads the free "Getting
Started w/OFBiz in 5 Steps". That tells me there is interest out there.
We just need to figure out what the "need" is and how to fill it with OFBiz.
Regards,
Ruth
----------------------------------------------------
Find me on the web at http://www.myofbiz.com or Google keyword "myofbiz"
[email protected]
David E Jones wrote:
I think you're right Jacques, though I also think it's a natural and maybe not
a bad thing.
Most people in the world aren't investing in much right now, even those who
have time and/or money to invest, because they don't expect much of a return on
the investment. Any successful investor will tell you that it's best to get
into things when it is cheap to invest (ie when others don't expect a return
and aren't investing), and then get out when the market is great (when others
do expect a return and are investing a lot). However, the same people will
often fail to recognize that such conditions are not only impossible to predict
in the future, but also impossible to recognize in the present, and they
further fail to recognize that the fact that they were able to invest in a low
market and get out when the market picked up was probably just the luck of
timing. Just ask any honest economist (if you can find one!)... they can't even
accurately analyze the present, let alone predict the future... even if they
are asked to every day.
Anyway, the point of all of that is that yes there isn't as much activity in
OFBiz right now. I think this is natural given that most end-user organizations
have pulled back their budgets significantly. That makes sense because the
sectors where OFBiz has been strongest (at least from my experience) are
getting hit really hard right now and many companies are not just cutting back,
but totally failing. End-user organizations have always been about 90% of my
work, but are now down to 0%... and I haven't designed or built anything for
one in almost a year now. Fortunately there are other types of companies out
there, but one way or another the demand for OFBiz is WAY down as the
industries and sizes of businesses it serves are hit so hard.
From the perspective of the project what does this matter? Unlike a company a
non-profit community-driven open source project has no liabilities and there is
no way it can just disappear (unless no one is using it, ie it falls into
irrelevancy). Even if somehow the ASF failed to get adequate donations of money
or server time to keep hosting the project, it could be hosted elsewhere, or
even turn into some crazy peer managed ecosystem using distributed git
repositories (some people would love that, but I think it would be a nightmare
for both contributors and users).
In any case, the worst case scenario is that the project slows down a little
bit. If we're lucky people won't lose too much hope and will continue to invest
in open source projects like OFBiz, which is really an investment that
developers do in hopes of getting more and better work in the future. If people
don't feel much hope for that then chances are they won't invest as much, and
maybe just the hobbyists who want to develop neat stuff will be contributing.
Sooner or later things will of course pick up, and then we'll be back to
complaints about too much going into the project instead of complaints about
not enough. On the other hand, given an infinite potential universe of things
people might want to see in OFBiz, there will ALWAYS be complaints about things
missing that certain people would like to see, or things organized better for
their current requirements, or wishes for free help instead of peer
collaboration.
Oh well, I guess enough pontificating for now, especially since I'm no pontiff.
-David
On Jan 18, 2010, at 11:48 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
And then, those that invested much, slowly invest less...
Jacques
From: "BJ Freeman" <[email protected]>
The missing element is manpower.
Get lots of great Ideas but not many contributors.
Axel Van Noten sent the following on 1/18/2010 6:58 AM:
Thanks, I learned a lot.
Still, I'm a little bit disappointed about the overall documentation. Would it
be possible to:
1) have it organised by release,
2) link to it immediatly from the documentation buton (on ofbiz.apache.org), or
the help button in the application,
3) have a clearer structure (per release) like:
Getting Started with OFBiz
OFBiz End User Documentation
OFBiz Reference Manual
OFBiz Technical Guide
OFBiz Tools and Utilities Guide
...
I know its easy to criticise, but I believe the project would gain a lot just
by changing these links and making a different hierarchy.
Kind regards,
Axel
From BJ Freeman <[email protected]>
Subject Re: OFBiz data load
Date Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:29:38 GMT
http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBENDUSER/OFBiz%27s+Data+File+Tools
here is a good link for a lot of help
http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/FAQ+-+Tips+-+Tricks+-+Cookbook+-+HowTo
http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Handling+of+External+data
Juan Pablo sent the following on 1/14/2010 8:42 AM:
Hi Axel.
1)
http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBENDUSER/OFBiz+End+User+Docs+Home
http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBTECH/Home
2) http://ofbiz.markmail.org/
On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 8:30 AM, axel van noten <[email protected]>wrote:
Hi
I've been installing OFBiz and looking for the following information:
1) Where is the primary point can I find the most update documentation?
The documentation buton on the OFBiz website and the help button in the
application are both bringing me to the cwiki.apache site. But there seems
to be no clear structure nor a primary point where I can turn to for manuals
and documentation.
2) is there a possibility to perform a text search on this mailing list?
3) I'm trying to load a product database into OFBiz. What would be the
appropriate way to do so? Is this documented somewhere?
Thanks for your help!
Kind regards
Axel
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