OSI board asleep at the switch?

[Raymond Luk]

Brian,

Ironically, I posted a message some time ago offering the services of the
50+ programmers here at OpenDesk.com to assist in creating a "license
submission management tool" or something of the sort to help out at OSI.
This is enlightened self interest as we are still waiting for OSI approval
for the OpenDesk.com Public Source License which was officially submitted in
November '99 (last century!).

No information system will replace a great executive administrator and
perhaps the former should not even be contemplated without the latter. But
if there's a need for some Web apps to help streamline the process and, more
importantly, to let people know the progress of their license, we would be
happy to volunteer to do some...scratching.


Raymond Luk, CEO
OpenDesk.com
ray at hbe.opendesk.com



----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Behlendorf <brian at collab.net>
To: Matthew C. Weigel <weigel+ at pitt.edu>
Cc: <license-discuss at opensource.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2000 12:29 AM
Subject: Re: OSI board asleep at the switch?


>
> For my part, it's overload.  I filter the messages into a box that
> now stands at 1200 messages long, and I never have the 4 hours I would
> anticipate it taking just to properly read and delete the messages in
> there, let alone keep up.  I also have responsibilities to the Apache
> lists (unread mail now standing at 3400 messages).
>
> Bruce is right, if OSI is to claim to represent the interests of this
> community, we need to be more responsive.  I've strongly considered
> resigning due to lack of time to adequately represent this community by
> responding to it.  I've held on because we appear to be making progress on
> finding and accomodating an executive administrator - not someone to make
> decisions for the board, but someone to handle a lot of the mechanics of
> what we do.  For example, we should have a license tracking tool to
> monitor submissions, take votes from the board (and the community), and
> call and close voting periods.  We should organize some assistance on the
> web pages, and perhaps open up the CVS tree for that content so others who
> are motivated to help can easily do so.  Etc etc.
>
> Though I can only speak for myself, the simple fact seems to be that
> many of us "leaders" in the Open Source community have worked ourselves
> into positions where we are now charged with showing that it can work.
> The honeymoon is over - the current Linux stock prices and Linuxcare's
> delayed IPO should make this pretty clear.  So I've been working 90 hour
> weeks (15 hours/day 6days/week) to make both collab.net and apache.org
> work; I apologize for not having another 2-5 hours a week to spend
> on OSI.
>
> Since the Open Source method is to always empower those with itches the
> ability to scratch them, I suppose what we could do to address this is
> send a call out for assistance along these lines.  Anyone want to write a
> pile of PHP to build a license submission management tool?  (No, I do not
> want to use gnats, jitterbug, or bugzilla for this, thanks)  Is anyone
> *serious* about wanting to help the web pages?  (we get inquiries, we ask
> for suggestions on what to change, we never get a response back).  Are
> there any other things we should be doing, as OSI, that we are not, and
> that people would volunteer to help out with?
>
> I am very open to suggestions.  I have not cleared this query with the OSI
> board at all; this is me asking independently, so do not confuse this with
> a formal invite from OSI to grant access to all comers.  But I think I can
> speak for the board to say we realize things are broken, and need help,
> but need help figuring out what the best solution is.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Brian
>
>
>
> On Wed, 5 Apr 2000, Matthew C. Weigel wrote:
> > I am hoping also that the difficulty so many have had with
unsusbscribing is
> > due to similar issues.  I experienced this recently myself, when I
noticed
> > that I hadn't seen an OSI board-member post in quite some time, nor
indicate
> > they'd read a single blessed thing.
> >
> > The directions to unsubscribe don't work, and while I've tried to be
polite
> > and simply delete everything as it comes, it's gotten annoying when
heated
> > discussions ensue.
> >
> > On Wed, 5 Apr 2000, Bruce Perens wrote:
> >
> > > I'm told privately that this is incompetence and not conspiracy. But
that
> > > doesn't make it any less of a problem. We need to track this.
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > > Bruce
> > >
> > >
> >
> >  Matthew Weigel
> >  Programmer/Sysadmin/Student
> >  weigel+ at pitt.edu
> >
>
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