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<h2> Community Articles: 
  Opinions, Interviews, Analyses</h2>
<p><a href="//lspintro.html" target="_blank">-Louis Su&aacute;rez-Potts</a></p>
<p></p>
13 July 2001
<br><br>
<h4>The OpenOffice.org Infrastructure Upgrade, Part II</h4>
<p>OpenOffice.org will be migrating from its current platform, <a href="http://www.tigris.org" target="_blank">Tigris 
  Classic</a>, to <a href="http://www.sourcecast.org/products/sourcecast/" target="_blank">SourceCast</a>, 
  an updated version of Tigris. In a <a href="./ec29June.html" target="_blank">previous 
  article</a>, I discussed some of the more obvious advantages the new platform 
  offers the community. I'd like here to go over two other important features 
  community members will be able to take advantage of: logging in and project 
  and user groups.</p>
<h4>Log In</h4>
<p>Tigris Classic places a harmless cookie in a user's browser. This cookie generates 
  a session id that is valid only for that session. Users are not identified, 
  sessions are: Privacy is respected. SourceCast follows in a similar vein, in 
  that it respects user privacy, as does <a href="http://www.sun.com" target="_blank">Sun 
  Microsystems</a> (which sponsors OpenOffice.org) and <a href="http://www.collab.net" target="_blank">CollabNet</a> 
  (which hosts OpenOffice.org). Only, because it has been designed to support 
  project joining and thus log-ins, SourceCast uses a different technology: log-ins. 
  Casual visitors who visit OpenOffice.org on SourceCast will be logged in as 
  &quot;guest&quot; and given a randomly generated password good for that session. 
  For casual visitors, that's it, and no other information will be asked for. 
  In short, there will be no experiential difference between OpenOffice.org on 
  SourceCast and OpenOffice.org on Tigris Classic, at least for the casual visitor.</p>
<p>But for those who want to join projects (and propose them), and who want to 
  contribute patches, etc., to OpenOffice.org? For these individuals, there is a difference. 
  By registering and logging in, the contributor can join projects, can propose 
  projects, and can work on the issues that concern a project. The reason for 
  this? To encourage members to join projects and to provide project leads (named 
  project owners in SourceCast) with some means by which to manage the work that 
  must be done. And, as I mentioned last week, this and other features are optional. 
  One need not join a project to participate in OpenOffice.org.</p>
  
<p>Okay, but what is entailed in registration? That is, what sort of information 
  is garnered? And what about privacy? Briefly, SourceCast gathers a username, 
  password, and e-mail address. The advantages? In this way, for instance, registered 
  users, who have joined projects and agreed to work on issues, can file and be 
  assigned issues and contacted for work on those issues by IssueZilla, our bug 
  and issue tracker. This represents a change: currently, anyone can file an issue; 
  but people seldom seem to, and instead resort to sending email. With SourceCast, 
  only registered users will be able to file issues (and be assigned issues). 
  As a result of this change, the hope is that registered users will feel more 
  involved in the community and consider OpenOffice.org a community for which 
  the contributor is partly responsible. Gone will be the situation in which you 
  can file an issue without the sense that someone else can assign you one, too. 
  In this way, we move further away from a retail model, in which there are customers 
  or clients who might complain about issues and there is an 'us' and 'them,' 
  and closer to a true, Open Source model, in which everyone is involved.</p>
<p>Registration enables project leads to invite registered users to their projects. 
  The registered user can of course decline the offer, of course, as there the 
  choice remains, naturally, with the developer. And, no doubt, some developers 
  will be more popular for some than others: the meritocracy won't disappear. 
  Actually, SourceCast will allow the development of a more nuanced meritocracy. 
  For it articulates a sophisticated ensemble of roles and permissions that registered 
  users can be granted. Tigris Classic has really only two categories: someone 
  can either write or they can't, to the CVS tree. In SourceCast, a registered 
  user can be a &quot;content developer,&quot; an &quot;observer&quot; or any 
  other role that the project lead feels addresses what must be done. </p>
<p>Indeed, by registering, we are making it much easier for a worthy project to 
  succeed, for the project owner will be able to invite talented contributors 
  with a spectrum of talents with minimal fuss. </p>
  
<h4><br>
  Groups: Projects and Users</h4>
<p>SourceCast allows for the grouping of registered users and projects. Projects 
  can be grouped together according to any reasonable criteria, such as technology. 
  What is more, any one project can belong to more than one group. And users can 
  be involved in several user groups. Thus, for instance, the Porting project 
  might become affiliated with a GUI project, and with the XML project. </p>
<p>In effect, a project group can be considered a sort of inclusive project, with 
  much of what that implies, minus the presence of a project lead. The grouping 
  feature is more than an administrative boon. It also makes it easier for users 
  to keep apprised of what is going on in those projects with which she is 
  involved, and simplifies the process by which a user's roles and permissions 
  can be managed.</p>
<p>There are, to be sure, other features which I have not fully discussed. Such 
  as searchable mail archives (finally); or the possibility of per-project news. 
  As the migration process continues, I will be posting more tips on SourceCast. 
</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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