Second year in a row that OO.o folk denied my proposal to talk about integrating Open Clip Art Library and Inkscape work with OO.o. Honestly, I wonder who develops on OO.o, why this process is so hard to crack into, and generally what is the deal.
Sorry, this is so off-topic, but is something I’m heavily trying to find out the main points of energy in, yet constantly hit a brick wall.
If anyone on either of these lists knows the OO.o dev. process, some key developers, or why it is so hard to break into the OO.o inner circles, please enlighten me.
I just want OO.o to play nice with SVG, Inkscape, Open Clip Art Library and other Open Source projects, but always get a, “I don’t know who works on OO.o.”
I used to wonder this more about X, but now keithp, ajax, anholt and others are rocking out that process in such a great open process.
Maybe I’m totally off point here, but honestly, I want to know what is up and if it is really a super-huge participation barrier, what to react accordingly in the future.
The rejection follows:
——– Forwarded Message ——–
From: Stefan Taxhet
> Reply-To: callforpapers@openoffice.org
> To: jon@rejon.org
> Subject: Your submission for OOoCon 2004
> Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 21:51:03 +0200
>
> Greetings,
>
> On behalf of the OpenOffice.org Conference Team, I would like to
> thank you for submitting your proposal for a paper. There were
> many submissions, far more than could fit into the two days of
> the conference, and so we had to make some difficult choices.
> In evaluating proposals for papers, we considered the areas
> each proposal addresses and how they interrelate with
> each other. I am sorry to say that, unfortunately, we are unable
> to use your proposal as a paper for this year’s OOoCon.
>
> Nevertheless we would be glad to see you at the conference.
> Please register by using the form at
> http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2005/registration.html
>
>
> Thank you,
>
> Stefan Taxhet
>
>
If you crack the combination, please let everyone know!
I have tried getting involved with OOo in several aspects and I hit a dead-end every time. I feel that at some point enough people will get fed up with the situation, and there will be a major splinter that will steal OOo’s thunder. Perhaps it seems too simplistic but that is how I see XFree86 -> Xorg, and to a lesser extent SodiPodi -> Inkscape.
Actually, once upon a time, I found some helpful people on an IRC channel (on freenode probably) that gave me some pointers on how the system worked, but perhaps I was not persistent enough in my attempts (and just so you know, I do not tend give up on such things easily). So my best advice is, if you have the patience, look for advice in IRC. And as always with IRC, YMMV.
I think this is just the problem…nobody knows, and the barrier for participation is way too high! Why is it so difficult? Its not that big of a project? Its easier to get into kernel development. Geez!!!
Is it possible that supporting abiword, gnumeric, and X might be the best solution for our community? Honestly, this groupware concept that OO.o uses is old. And, if the project isn’t into allowing the community in, then are they a part of the community?
The largest part of OOo is done by the former StarDiv team (now at Sun) in Hamburg, Germany. The conference is supervised by Sun (who is a Sun employee). Is very hard and takes a long time for someone to get in the “inner circle”.
The Ximian “fork” is much more open and contribution are received easily, but they are not the ones in charge of conferences nor deciding the policy for the main branch.
To know the key developers, what they do and what affiliation have, see http://go-ooo.org/name-account.html
What additional details do you need?
Hmmm…that site helps much. I have this feeling from comments that you, Nicu, and Michael Meeks have made that there are OSS hackers working on the project, but that there is this team that is funded by Sun, which Jeff gives confirmation of, that is kind of in stealth mode. I am starting to tune into their planet site though now to see if anything can come of that.
I guess the other option is to get them to include me in their planet feed
I’ve found this kind of planet plugging helps to increase participation and support the ambient sharing approach that planet allows for.