What is the "center"

[ReneK]

As Ivan D, OberonCore and I see the need to define the role of the "center", I'm starting this thread here.

In the beginning, OMI produced BB. They did all the work:

• analysis
  design
  programming
  testing
  marketing and sales
  provide communication between users and between OMI and users

Later on they shifted their focus and made BB OpenSource. They still did

• analysis
  design
  programming
  testing
  provide communication between users and between OMI and users,

but since BB was not sold but free to the downloader, marketing and sales became obsolete.

In making BB OpenSource, they probably wished for the Community to do

• testing
  proposal of bugfixing

But this didn't happen they way they thought.

So now they decided to discontinue their involvement with BB.

The community needs to fill this vacuum and it was proposed to form an "authorative center" to do that.

Based on this, I propose the center's job to be:

• analysis
  design
  programming
  marketing
  provide communication between users and between center and users

And all of it focussed on the subsystems currently in the last release of BB done by OMI.

Marketing is a central task in an OpenSource community project, because without a critical mass of users, the community is too small to carry on the project.

As further tasks of the Center, I propose

• Centralization
  Internationalization
  Ports

Centralization of the various BB fractions, producing ONE solidified stable version instead of the 6+ that are currently available, is necessary to get the critical mass of users.

Internationalization is necessary to grow the user base
Portability is the strength of a good framework, and it helps grow the user base. Ports to different systems and platforms are therefore necessary to keep a framework alive and useful.

[Ivan Denisov]

I disagree. In open-source projects the analysis, design, programming should be done by any who wants, including the "center".

The "center" should make choice between suggested solutions (expert opinion), make additional testing.

"marketing" ? for open-source? I am not understand you... Do you mean "information distribution"?

"provide communication between users and between center and users" — that is the most important role of the "center", from my point of view.
It is providing with:
- forum
- static web-site
- wiki
- blogging platform
- issues tracker
- repository

[ReneK]

Marketing:

If nobody uses BB, then there is no need for any OpenSource project. Right?

So you need to grow the community. You need to "get" users:

Users who use BB for their private or commercial projects,
Users who write new subsystems
Users who test the basic framework
Users who propose bug-fixes

Those users usually do not fall from heaven. They need to hear/read about BB, they need to get "hooked" up, need to be convinced that BB is what they need for their tasks.

Marketing (first on the 'net and by word of mouth, later by other means, probably books) is the way to gt new users.

Every OpenSource project needs it. Or as an OpenSource Community guy wrote:

You can write the most useful beautiful code in the world and be done with it, but your contribution to society can be disproportionally amplified by allowing people to reuse it and making people aware of it. https://medium.com/open-source/aaa2a5437d3a

If this is the first OpenSource Project where you are in the driver seat, you may want to do some reading first:

http://www.unterstein.net/su/docs/CathBaz.pdf
http://thym.org/downloads/Akademy2010-T ... ciples.pdf
http://opensource.com/life/13/9/how-bui ... -community
http://de.slideshare.net/jimjag/running ... e-projects
http://producingoss.com/en/producingoss.pdf
http://ipg.host.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/mon ... ndrews.pdf

Those sources disabuse the reader of the notion that OpenSource is primarily about producing good cheap software.

[OberonCore]

I disagree. In open-source projects the analysis, design, programming should be done by any who wants, including the "center".

Yes. Anyone one can do this with one's own product outside the center.

But any final decisions about center's product (stable basic BB) should be done inside center only. And only for this product

the center's job to be:

analysis
design
programming

The

marketing
provide communication between users and between center and users

are natural for the center.

[Ivan Denisov]

"Center" can develop and can use clever solutions from other users. For example, Luowe did not want to join the center. OberonCore, you do not want to use his fixes?

If the development is not the distinguishing characteristic it should not be used for characterising the "center".

Let's chose distinguishing characteristics!

I totally agree with "final decisions about center's product".

1. The "center" make final decisions about stable basic BlackBox Component Builder.

[Ivan Denisov]

Should we use am. "center" or br. "centre"?

That is one more reason why I do not like this theatrics word "center" — it is dividing people

[ReneK]

As I have written before, if the community proposes a bug fix or addition, it is the center's job to analyse the situation AND the fix (or addition to the basic framework) and incorporate it (of course, due credit should be given to him who did the initial work), if the analyse shows that this fix is good and necessary.

That does not relieve the center of the duty for analysing.

Concerning "center" or "centre", I do not care. This is a working title, and when and if the necessity arises, the center may and will change it's name.

Yes, names make divisions, and yes, this is exactly what is needed. There is need of an "authoritative center". Someone who decides what the "stable version" and the line of development is. You have that in Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Eclipse and I believe in any thriving OpenSource community. I urge you to do the reading I proposed, before you throw out things that are vital for the success of an OpenSource Community Project.

[valexey]

I have (a little) expirience in developing open source software (some time ago I worked on this opensource project: http://www.squid-cache.org/ , you can found my name here: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~squid/squi ... NTRIBUTORS ). And there is transparent patch submission procedure:

Squid3 Voting
The first matching rule wins. A submission is automatically counted as one positive vote from the submitter.

(Any developer may vote.)

• One negative vote by a core developer blocks the merge until resolved.
• Two positive votes from core developers accept the submission (with a high priority for merging).
• Any three positive votes accept the submission.
• Submissions older than 10 days without negative votes are accepted.

Squid3 Exceptions

1. Core developers may commit any changes immediately.
2. Within 10 days of the commit, core developers may remove any submission without prior notice or discussion. A post-factum notice (and discussion) are still expected on squid-dev.

For more look at: http://wiki.squid-cache.org/DeveloperResources

Please note that only developers can vote (about patches), not any member of core team. And it is right.

Also I suppose that every member should be a human. Not abstract "OberonCore" or "Oberspace". All should be as transparent as it possible.

Thanks.

[valexey]

As a "center" member I can do some marketing jobs. For example I can promote BBF at habrahabr.ru - Russian collaborative blog about IT and Computer science (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habrahabr). I know the audience (what they want, what they like and what is not). And I know how to write articles.

Also sometimes I can help with hosting and with other similar tasks. And I have a little knowledge about opensource project management.

PS. Also I write some bindings for external libs, but it is doesn't matter.

[ReneK]

Dear Alexey,

as of now you are not yet a center member. It is due to Ivan's unwillingness to wait for proper procedures that you are already on the center forums, and there has already been some objection to that (not objection to you personally, but objection to Ivan "deciding" that you have access to the center only forums without being properly voted upon!).

I would ask you to abstain from posting on the center forums until this is solved.

Thanks
Rene