content/editorial/20021014_year_two.html - openoffice-org - Git at Google

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 <H2>Year Two</H2>
 <P><A HREF="../lspintro.html" TARGET="_blank">-Louis Su&aacute;rez-Potts,
 Editor</A></P>
 <P><I>2002-10-14</I></P>
 <H4>An Extraordinary Year</H4>
 <P>This year has been extraordinary for OpenOffice.org, and any report
 of what has happened could not do justice to all who have made it happen nor to
 all that has happened. So, first off, allow me to state that the most
 remarkable thing about the last year has been&#151;and will continue to
 be&#151;the growth and maturation of the OpenOffice.org community. </P>
 <P> I include the developers and endusers and everyone who has either coded or
 submitted patches, suggestions, advice, bugfixes, constructive complaints (lots
 of those!), praise (lots of that, too), time, effort, money, sleep. </P>
 <P> Congratulations, all! This project has far exceeded its promise.
 OpenOffice.org is used now by millions of people throughout the world,
 as well as in corporations and governments, both large and small, thanks to
 you. </P>
 <P> Why do they use it? Because it answers the question of not, "Where do you
 want to go today?" but, "What do you want to do today?" The first is silly and
 assumes you have lots of cash, the second real and makes no assumptions. It in
 fact gives you the capital to do what you need to do. </P>
 <P>People use OpenOffice.org because it, and the project, work for them.
 They may be using Linux, Solaris, Windows, FreeBSD, LinuxPPC, IRIX, Linux
 S/390, TRU64, Mac OS X (via X11): virtually any flavor of Windows or Unix.
 OpenOffice.org will write, draw, calculate, present in at least 23
 languages, and do it using internationally standardized technology that is more
 robust than, well, you-know-what, whose documents it reads&#151;and will even
 fix. </P>
 <H4>The Difference Community Makes</H4>
 <P>"OpenOffice.org demonstrates that a partnership between a large
 corporation and the open source developer community is not only possible, but
 highly productive"&#151;<EM>Tim O'Reilly, CEO of
 <A HREF="http://www.oreilly.com">O'Reilly &amp; Associates</A>.</EM></P>
 <P> A year ago, when I wrote <A HREF="ec13Oct.html">the first birthday
 report</A>, I was discussing the 638c build. We were not thinking of endusers.
 But that was before the proposal to adopt the community-sponsored and
 maintained OpenOffice.org
 <A HREF="../about_us/numbering_proposal.html">was agreed to</A> by the
 community earlier this year.</P>
 <P> The effect of this decision has been monumental and it is still growing. In
 a nutshell, the decision shifted more control to the volunteer community over
 the content and scope of the stable release offered by the Project,
 OpenOffice.org, thus affirming the implicit covenant between
 volunteers and Sun, which founded and substantially funds the project. In the
 last nine months, it has been increasingly the volunteer community, not just
 Sun, which has shaped the product and the project. And this shaping has only
 begun. </P>
 <P> OpenOffice.org has shifted its focus to include the contributions of
 endusers as well as coders; and for both groups, we are making it easier to
 contribute. The recently released SDK is meant to offer developers the tools;
 documentation and Web areas are coming soon. The
 <A HREF="http://native-lang.openoffice.org/">Native-Lang</A>,
 <A HREF="http://marketing.openoffice.org/">Marketing</A>,
 <A HREF="http://incubator.openoffice.org/">Incubator category</A>,<A
 HREF="http://qa.openoffice.org/">QA</A>, and
 <A HREF="http://website.openoffice.org/">Website</A> projects all accommodate
 the enthusiasm of people who want to give back to the project what it has given
 them. This generosity characterizes Open Source. But no other Open Source
 project of our size, our scope, and our importance has been able to so
 successfully engaging this enduser enthusiasm to further the Project's goals.
 Leading this effort is the recently formed <A
 HREF="http://qa.openoffice.org/">QA Project</A>, which has taken on the task of
 coordinating work on producing community-sponsored products that have been
 tested by endusers. </P>
 <P> We are in fact changing not just what is meant by Open Source but the
 expectations corporations have in going Open Source. The ramifications are
 profound. Two key projects are the <A
 HREF="http://native-lang.openoffice.org/">Native-Lang category</A> (an ensemble
 of projects) and the <A HREF="http://marketing.openoffice.org/">Marketing
 Project</A>, which have altered the way an Open Source project's technology is
 communicated. Because of Native-Lang, we can coordinate the way users and
 developers learn of OpenOffice.org and offer to new users and developers
 the model of a participatory community. OpenOffice.org is not just a
 product but a process and a relation to a product; the Native-Lang projects
 help to further that idea. </P>
 <P> Native-Lang works in complement with the Marketing Project, which
 recognizes the importance of communicating our message the form that is
 understood by corporations and governments. As a result of Marketing's push,
 OpenOffice.org is widely recognized and has been repeatedly featured by
 the news media, both U.S. and throughout the world. </P>
 <P> The marketing has been effective, too, both in promulgating OpenOffice.org
   1.0 and in bringing in new developers and contributors. Since the launch of
   OpenOffice.org, on May 1, 2002, more than five million people have downloaded
   the product, more than 60 thousand have joined the project. And that's not all.
 </P>
 <P> <A HREF="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-949913.html" TARGET="_blank">Verizon
 now uses OpenOffice.org 1.0</A>, and it has saved the company millions of
 dollars. It's the largest corporate user of OpenOffice.org that we
 are aware of but, as our <A HREF="../about_us/testimonials.html">Testimonial page</A>
 indicates, it is not the only one by any means. As well, national and local
 governments throughout the world are turning to OpenOffice.org. Partly,
 this surely has to with
 <A
 HREF="http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=26096">Microsoft's
 new licensing program (6.0)</A>, which assumes that the paying corporation is
 rich and, importantly, has no other choices (in fact, "no choice" sums up
 Microsoft's strategy). But the move to OpenOffice.org also has to do
 with the recognition that the very relationship Microsoft has furthered and off
 of which it has gotten so rich is not in the people's best interest. It's not
 even in a corporation's. </P>
 <P> In the next six months I fully expect that everything we have so far seen
   and marveled over&#151;OpenOffice.org's popularity, the growth of the project&#151;will
   prove to be hints to something vaster. OpenOffice.org is a product that is being
   recognized as immediately usable but also as something to which one can <I>add</I>
   things; and OpenOffice.org as a community is only beginning to shape the way
   people think about their product.</P>
 <P><A HREF="index.html">Previous Interviews and Articles</A></P></body>
 </html>
	<html><head>
	<meta HTTP-EQUIV="content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
	</head>
	<body>
	<H2>Year Two</H2>
	<P><A HREF="../lspintro.html" TARGET="_blank">-Louis Suárez-Potts,
	Editor</A></P>
	<P><I>2002-10-14</I></P>
	<H4>An Extraordinary Year</H4>
	<P>This year has been extraordinary for OpenOffice.org, and any report
	of what has happened could not do justice to all who have made it happen nor to
	all that has happened. So, first off, allow me to state that the most
	remarkable thing about the last year has beenand will continue to
	bethe growth and maturation of the OpenOffice.org community. </P>
	<P> I include the developers and endusers and everyone who has either coded or
	submitted patches, suggestions, advice, bugfixes, constructive complaints (lots
	of those!), praise (lots of that, too), time, effort, money, sleep. </P>
	<P> Congratulations, all! This project has far exceeded its promise.
	OpenOffice.org is used now by millions of people throughout the world,
	as well as in corporations and governments, both large and small, thanks to
	you. </P>
	<P> Why do they use it? Because it answers the question of not, "Where do you
	want to go today?" but, "What do you want to do today?" The first is silly and
	assumes you have lots of cash, the second real and makes no assumptions. It in
	fact gives you the capital to do what you need to do. </P>
	<P>People use OpenOffice.org because it, and the project, work for them.
	They may be using Linux, Solaris, Windows, FreeBSD, LinuxPPC, IRIX, Linux
	S/390, TRU64, Mac OS X (via X11): virtually any flavor of Windows or Unix.
	OpenOffice.org will write, draw, calculate, present in at least 23
	languages, and do it using internationally standardized technology that is more
	robust than, well, you-know-what, whose documents it readsand will even
	fix. </P>
	<H4>The Difference Community Makes</H4>
	<P>"OpenOffice.org demonstrates that a partnership between a large
	corporation and the open source developer community is not only possible, but
	highly productive"<EM>Tim O'Reilly, CEO of
	<A HREF="http://www.oreilly.com">O'Reilly & Associates</A>.</EM></P>
	<P> A year ago, when I wrote <A HREF="ec13Oct.html">the first birthday
	report</A>, I was discussing the 638c build. We were not thinking of endusers.
	But that was before the proposal to adopt the community-sponsored and
	maintained OpenOffice.org
	<A HREF="../about_us/numbering_proposal.html">was agreed to</A> by the
	community earlier this year.</P>
	<P> The effect of this decision has been monumental and it is still growing. In
	a nutshell, the decision shifted more control to the volunteer community over
	the content and scope of the stable release offered by the Project,
	OpenOffice.org, thus affirming the implicit covenant between
	volunteers and Sun, which founded and substantially funds the project. In the
	last nine months, it has been increasingly the volunteer community, not just
	Sun, which has shaped the product and the project. And this shaping has only
	begun. </P>
	<P> OpenOffice.org has shifted its focus to include the contributions of
	endusers as well as coders; and for both groups, we are making it easier to
	contribute. The recently released SDK is meant to offer developers the tools;
	documentation and Web areas are coming soon. The
	<A HREF="http://native-lang.openoffice.org/">Native-Lang</A>,
	<A HREF="http://marketing.openoffice.org/">Marketing</A>,
	<A HREF="http://incubator.openoffice.org/">Incubator category</A>,<A
	HREF="http://qa.openoffice.org/">QA</A>, and
	<A HREF="http://website.openoffice.org/">Website</A> projects all accommodate
	the enthusiasm of people who want to give back to the project what it has given
	them. This generosity characterizes Open Source. But no other Open Source
	project of our size, our scope, and our importance has been able to so
	successfully engaging this enduser enthusiasm to further the Project's goals.
	Leading this effort is the recently formed <A
	HREF="http://qa.openoffice.org/">QA Project</A>, which has taken on the task of
	coordinating work on producing community-sponsored products that have been
	tested by endusers. </P>
	<P> We are in fact changing not just what is meant by Open Source but the
	expectations corporations have in going Open Source. The ramifications are
	profound. Two key projects are the <A
	HREF="http://native-lang.openoffice.org/">Native-Lang category</A> (an ensemble
	of projects) and the <A HREF="http://marketing.openoffice.org/">Marketing
	Project</A>, which have altered the way an Open Source project's technology is
	communicated. Because of Native-Lang, we can coordinate the way users and
	developers learn of OpenOffice.org and offer to new users and developers
	the model of a participatory community. OpenOffice.org is not just a
	product but a process and a relation to a product; the Native-Lang projects
	help to further that idea. </P>
	<P> Native-Lang works in complement with the Marketing Project, which
	recognizes the importance of communicating our message the form that is
	understood by corporations and governments. As a result of Marketing's push,
	OpenOffice.org is widely recognized and has been repeatedly featured by
	the news media, both U.S. and throughout the world. </P>
	<P> The marketing has been effective, too, both in promulgating OpenOffice.org
	1.0 and in bringing in new developers and contributors. Since the launch of
	OpenOffice.org, on May 1, 2002, more than five million people have downloaded
	the product, more than 60 thousand have joined the project. And that's not all.
	</P>
	<P> <A HREF="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-949913.html" TARGET="_blank">Verizon
	now uses OpenOffice.org 1.0</A>, and it has saved the company millions of
	dollars. It's the largest corporate user of OpenOffice.org that we
	are aware of but, as our <A HREF="../about_us/testimonials.html">Testimonial page</A>
	indicates, it is not the only one by any means. As well, national and local
	governments throughout the world are turning to OpenOffice.org. Partly,
	this surely has to with
	<A
	HREF="http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=26096">Microsoft's
	new licensing program (6.0)</A>, which assumes that the paying corporation is
	rich and, importantly, has no other choices (in fact, "no choice" sums up
	Microsoft's strategy). But the move to OpenOffice.org also has to do
	with the recognition that the very relationship Microsoft has furthered and off
	of which it has gotten so rich is not in the people's best interest. It's not
	even in a corporation's. </P>
	<P> In the next six months I fully expect that everything we have so far seen
	and marveled overOpenOffice.org's popularity, the growth of the projectwill
	prove to be hints to something vaster. OpenOffice.org is a product that is being
	recognized as immediately usable but also as something to which one can <I>add</I>
	things; and OpenOffice.org as a community is only beginning to shape the way
	people think about their product.</P>
	<P><A HREF="index.html">Previous Interviews and Articles</A></P></body>
	</html>