[fdn-ann] Re: GNOME Foundation press release

[Greg Corrin <gcorrin eazel com>]

All,

The press release announcing the GNOME Foundation should not be confused with
company specific commitments to the GNOME platform - many of these commitments
don't involve the initial members of the Advisory board.

Because several of the proposed additions to the Foundation announce are really
company commitments, I propose that we have a separate announcement from the
Steering committee regarding these - and not include them in the foundation
announce.

So, in addition to putting quotes on a second sheet, I will subtract company
specific announcements from the draft of our first release and send out today -
and if there are any more GNOME specific contributions your company will be
making, please let us know as the steering committee needs to draft a second
release...

Thanks,
Greg|


linas@linas.org wrote:

> I find myself agreeing with Jim.  Changing content at the last minute is
> bad form.  Some of the new points are potentially divisive and show
> a lack of seriousness and organization on the part of the Gnome
> Foundation leadership.   You (we?) risk having a backlash from the
> more adult players who think to themselves 'they promised this,
> but then said that, and then did something completely different'.
> Sounds like a teenager with too many hormones: colorful, inspired,
> interesting to watch, but not who you're going to do business with.
>
> --linas
>
> It's been rumoured that Jim Gettys said:
> >
> > Strong comments below...
> >                       - Jim
> >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Maciej Stachowiak [mailto:mjs@eazel.com]
> > > Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 8:36 PM
> > > To: Miguel de Icaza
> > > Cc: Barbara Heffner; foundation-announcement@gnome.org;
> > > emcshane@chenpr.com; msouza@chenpr.com; Marco.Boerries@Eng.Sun.COM
> > > Subject: Re: [fdn-ann] GNOME MEDIA ADVISORY FOR REVIEW
> > >
> > >
> > > Miguel de Icaza <miguel@helixcode.com> writes:
> > >
> > > > Hello guys,
> > > >
> > > >    I just talked to Marco from Sun, and we would like to make the
> > > > Foundation press release a lot more interesting than it is right now.
> > > >
> > > >    The current focus is to announce a GNOME foundation that will
> > > > hopefully do something in the future, and say how excited we are about
> > > > this and so on.
> > > >
> > > >    Here is an outline of the proposal and it adds a lot more meet to
> > > > the announcement:
> > > >
> > > >   1. Main point of the announcement: Key Players join forces to
> > > >            create GNOME Foundation and deliver next generation user
> > > >            environment for PCs, Internet Devices and PDAs.
> > > >
> > > >   2. GNOME Foundation adopts Open Office as its productivity
> > > >            suite to be integrated together with GNOME Office.
> > >
> > > This sounds like a much stronger statement than what we felt
> > > comfortable with making before - I think we should still keep this
> > > vague since we have not seen the code, etc etc.
> >
> > I agree with Maciej: Gnome should NEVER adopt things sight unseen.  This
> > is a terrible precedent to set.  This goes completely against the principle
> > of (rough) consensus government: the people making Gnome have had NO chance
> > to look this over and see if it is appropriate.
> >
> > The most that should EVER happen is that an organization, be it the Gnome
> > Foundation or W3C, or whatever, is examining it to see if it might be
> > useful.  W3C has a process for formal submissions: the Gnome Foundation
> > needs a similar process.  In the W3C case, the process includes what
> > submittors can or cannot say to the press when making submissions.
> > I recommend we do likewise FROM THE BEGINNING: this was a major headache
> > in W3C until the process was established: companies played games in the
> > press implying adoption, when at most it was a trial balloon.
> >
> > It could also create major political headaches for other companies to
> > join the foundation: but I'm in fact much more concerned about precendent,
> > which I believe is a killer. (though it could certainly seriously affect
> > the current announcement; though I haven't raised the issue yet, it
> > might affect Compaq's participation).
> >
> > >
> > > >   3. GNOME Foundation adopts Mozilla/Netscape
> > > >           Marco will work on getting a spokeperson from AOL for
> > > >           this.
> > >
> > > Hmmm, I wonder if AOL or mozilla.org could be convinced to join the
> > > GNOME Foundation then.
> >
> > I have much less problem with Mozilla/Netscape: the code is out there,
> > and it is clearly an open source project at this date.  But again,
> > I wonder if there is rough consensus in the Gnome project about mozilla.
> > That is for other's to judge, though.
> >
> > But even leaving this aside, things are getting close to this announcement,
> > and I'm getting nervous about the scope changing: we don't want companies
> > to find at the last minute they must withdraw, and the resulting furor
> > that might result.  It is certainly making ME nervous.
> >
> > Lets not let mission creep spoil this party....  We are stronger together
> > than disunited.  We've got most of the industry on board, and that is
> > worth alot.
> >
> > >
> > > >   4. The companies involved in this announcement are going to
> > > >            make GNOME better and devote programming resources to make
> > > >            this happen.
> > > >
> > > >           How each company involved in the announcement will
> > > >           help this.
> > > >
> > > >   5. GNOME technologies are the platform of choice for internet
> > > >            devices, embedded systems "dot com" devices, desktop
> > > >            systems, SOHO etc.
> > >
> > > This sounds like quite an exaggeration at this point, to say we are
> > > the "platform of choice" for these things. Hopefully soon it won't be.
> > >
> > >  - Maciej
> >
> > I don't think hyperbole helps us here, so I again agree with Maciej.
> >                               - Jim
> >
> > --
> > Jim Gettys
> > Technology and Corporate Development
> > Compaq Computer Corporation
> > jg@pa.dec.com
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Foundation-announcement mailing list
> > Foundation-announcement@gnome.org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-announcement
> >
>
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