Mailing-List: contact ooo-dev-help@incubator.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
Received-SPF: pass (athena.apache.org: domain of rgardler@opendirective.com
 designates 74.125.82.175 as permitted sender)
MIME-Version: 1.0
In-Reply-To: 
 <CAP-ksoj=hB3yKURsR0kb30W+WQDX6VecTvdJQU73EZJnh6cTYg@mail.gmail.com>
References: 
 <CAOFYJNa_A_0RmkRTATtJmWfYnfF3hJ_zetkpUnoFB_ZbXZ57bg@mail.gmail.com>
 <CAP-ksoj=hB3yKURsR0kb30W+WQDX6VecTvdJQU73EZJnh6cTYg@mail.gmail.com>
From: Ross Gardler <rgardler@opendirective.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2012 10:53:08 +0100
Message-ID: 
 <CAKQbXgBO=j3WM7F=1mn+bksjX+FKr3hqT2Ep-WaMKd1eMnDAvQ@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: OpenOffice status
To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

As most people here know graduation from the Incubator is dependent on
the IPMCs recommendation and the Boards approval. Once the project
graduates it is entirely self-governing. For the IPMC to recommend
graduation the mentors, who represent the IPMC, must be satisfied with
the PPMCs ability to self manage as an ASF project. This includes
managing the community as well as managing the technical aspects.
Managing an ASF community can be difficult. I recently posted a series
of articles on the Outercurve foundations blog on the topic of open
source governace, the most recent identified some of the problems
facing meritocratic projects like those found in the ASF. In this mail
I express my individual opinion, as just one mentor, as to whether the
Apache OpenOffice podling is ready to graduate.

My conclusion is: whilst there are some remaining challenges for the
community there is strong evidence that the community is ready to
graduate. There are people stepping up and demonstrating an
understanding of meritocracy and how it differs from other similar
forms of governance, most notably oligarchy. There are a good number
of people taking responsibility for the health of the community as a
whole and pushing forwards past problems that rise up, sometimes from
unexpected quarters. It is my belief that the community is open to
third parties and that there is no single controlling influence within
the AOO community. I also believe that a removal of the "Incubating"
tag line will enable the community to more easily engage with some of
the more cautious participants in the Open Document Formats ecosystem.
For this reason, I am generally in favour of graduation at this time.

AOO finds itself in a highly visible space. Whilst the majority of
users of OpenOffice are unaware of how it is developed much of the
Open Source world looks to major projects like this as a yard-stick.
What the AOO PMC does in the future will be picked apart and, in some
cases, replicated across a wide number of projects within the broader
Open Document Format ecosystem. The community members who have stepped
up during this Incubation phase need to keep focused on the goal of
being a truly meritocratic project. That means spending time managing
the community aspects of the project as well as the technical aspects.
I no longer have significant concerns about the communities ability to
do this.

Keep up the great work.

Ross

On 15 September 2012 00:02, Rob Weir <robweir@apache.org> wrote:
> FYI, as posted on general@incubator.apache.org.
>
> -Rob
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Jukka Zitting <jukka.zitting@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 2:52 AM
> Subject: OpenOffice status
> To: general@incubator.apache.org
>
>
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for the report, OpenOffice!
>
> After spend a few hours yesterday digging through list archives and
> other materials I'm overall pretty happy with the things I'm seeing.
> As also mentioned on your report, I believe you're well on your way to
> establish a set of project-level bylaws or at least a good shared
> understanding on community structure and behavior.
>
> From my perspective it looks like you'll be ready to graduate as soon
> as those discussions have reached good enough consensus.
>
> BR,
>
> Jukka Zitting
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscribe@incubator.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: general-help@incubator.apache.org


-- 
Ross Gardler (@rgardler)
Programme Leader (Open Development)
OpenDirective http://opendirective.com