Re: [tdf-discuss] New name

On Monday 04 Oct 2010 23:06:39 Italo Vignoli wrote:
> James Wilde wrote:
> > As I understand it, most of the development team of OOo jumped ship to
> > set up LibO in anticipation of Oracle making unacceptable changes to the
> > OOo concept.  I don't know how many they are, but I'd be surprised if
> > they're over 30, and as far as I and most users are concerned, they
> > "own" the product.
>
> We don't "own" anything. We have simply started the process, and we have
> tried to push it forward putting all our enthusiasm and energies behind i
t.
> The process has started a long time before the conference in Budapest,
> where there have not been any "parallel" or "secret" sessions. We have
> been there as regular OOo community members.

I'm sorry, if it's offlist, then for the majority of community members it's

secret. That may not seem that way to you, but for the vast majority of the

community it is.
You can see how this can give the impression that we have another Sun
situation going on, critical decisions made away from the community with a

fait accompli handed to us on a plate.  "Here you are, like it or lump it!"


> As far as the process of creation of the group is concerned, I would say
> that has been very "natural": i.e. we have started discussing the
> problem over beers at OOo conferences, then we have started to write
> emails and sometimes discuss the subject over the phone or Skype.
>
> Those that were in the loop are part of the group of founding members:
> there has not been any deliberate process for bringing in "friends". We
> have all "earned" - if I can use this term - the right to belong to the
> group based on merit and contribution.
>
> > But the point is, the 30 or whatever developers have been planning this
> > for some time.  They didn't launch LibO after a beer last Friday, and
> > they, for better or worse, chose LibreOffice as the name.
>
> There is one single concept that has not been raised during the
> discussion about the name: the OOo (and now LibO) community is in the
> same marketplace as corporations with a turnover of tens of billions of
> dollars. Brand names and trademarks are key for protecting the software
> and the foundation, and our lawyers have suggested to come out with a
> name which was difficult or impossible to attack.
>
> I think that it is time to concentrate on the development of the
> community and the software. As far as I am concerned, LibreOffice is
> terrible for Italian speakers, but LibO is nice and cute, especially if
> you pronounce it with an accent on the last letter: Libò.
>
> In any case, thanks for the discussion. Your interest in the project
> shows that we are on the right track.

So perhaps what will come out of this is that we will get a conference out
of
Europe, so those of us on the other side of the world who have to spend
obscene amounts of money to get there, might just find ourselves "in the
loop".

The issue that I find frustrating is that no-one felt it necessary to infor
m
the community, I got an email from someone who knows me as the MarCon for N
Z
asking: "What's going on with this?"  I had to say I didn't know.

What would have been so hard about putting together something to post to al
l
the lists at the same time as the press release.  It seems there were some

areas, like looking after the community, that were ignored. (Odd since it s
ays
"open and transparent" in the Vision Statement)

How were we to know how long this had been going on, this secret society,
planning on the quiet.  Even now a week after the press were told we're onl
y
getting some info in dribs and drabs because some of the secret society see
m
to be getting a guilt attack.

This is not a good look.

GL
--
Graham Lauder,
OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ
http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html

OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant.

INGOTs Assessor Trainer
(International Grades in Open Technologies)
www.theingots.org
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