content/editorial/jost_story.html - openoffice-org - Git at Google

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 <h2>Community Stories</h2>
 <br>
 <h4>OpenOffice.org and the Promise of Collaboration</h4>
 <p>2001 October 13 </p>
 <p>-Jost Ammon, <a href="http://whiteboard.openoffice.org/marketing/">Marketing
   Project Co-Lead</a> </p>
 <br>
 <p>I have ever been an addict to music. Of course I've always wanted to share
   my experience with music. The &#145;Net offered me totally unexpected opportunities
   to do so, first, by enabling me to participate in various mailing lists with
   others who share the same interest as I, and whom I would never have met where
   I live, later in getting acquainted with Lyle Mays, composer and keyboarder
   to the Pat Metheny Group, who was open enough to enter an email relationship
   with someone he didn't know. And when I thought of writing an essay about this
   virtual/non-virtual acquaintance with Lyle and with others, I began to explore
   this new medium which offered possibilities that go far beyond of what is possible
   with the good old linear and two-dimensional text, based on black letters on
   a white paper.</p>
 <p>I wanted to create a website that would reflect my interests and allow me to
   communicate with my virtual (and nonvirtual!) friends. And as I started my website
   I realized I needed an HTML editor. I found some for free, but one of them vanished
   after I had learnt to handle it, or rather it morphed into a bigger word processing
   software I never really got to master. Then I needed software that could edit
   graphics. I found one, but again it didn't have all the features I needed. Finally
   I needed a database for all my emails, and again had to look for yet more software.
   I don't know remember when it was, but one day I found a CD-ROM copy of StarOffice
   in a magazine at the library. I copied it to my PC and started working with
   it. </p>
 <p>It could do everything I needed.</p>
 <p>I could compose my website, write my stories, articles, letters; I could control
   the website&#146;s design easily. I could update the source code of my website.
   I could edit the graphics; and I also found that StarOffice contained the database
   I wanted, one that allowed me to index and search through my emails by keyword.
   The more I became attracted to this universal tool for a universal medium, the
   more I learned about Open Source, since Sun Microsystems gave the code of its
   StarOffice to the open-source community helping OpenOffice.org (the software)
   get off the ground. I learned about the free and open spirit of the Internet
   that still lives. And that it lives only through the idea of sharing. I learned
   about OpenOffice.org (the Project), this international community that shares
   the idea of putting the best of each together, in order to create a universal,
   free and open tool for our daily work. And so I found not only the medium and
   its tool but also the spirit that embraces it all.</p>
 <p>OpenOffice.org is just more than just the best office suite, based on incredible
   work by some of the brightest individuals the international &#145;Net community
   has gathered together. And it&#146;s more than just the best software to express
   the universality of the medium called the &#145;Net. Free, OpenOffice.org is
   ultimately an expression of our will to grow on the grounds of sharing our freely
   accessible knowledge. </p>
 <p>Perhaps it is good to recall some facts about OpenOffice to get a grip on the
   dimensions of OpenOffice.org. There are more than 3600 subscribers to the mailing
   lists and contributors of code, documentation and bug identification. Over two
   million downloads as of this day, not counting those of the mirrors. At least
   twenty-three ongoing projects including, besides the technical features, things
   like documentation, groupware, and even marketing. There are now open-source
   functions such as printing, spellchecker, and thesaurus in English. We have
   ports available for Linux, Solaris, Windows NT, 2000, 95/98/ME, Linux PPC, and
   soon even Mac OS/X. And last but not least, OpenOffice.org receives nearly half
   a million page hits a week.</p>
 <p>All these open-source efforts remind me a bit of editing the French Encyclop&eacute;die.
   Some 250 years ago the brightest spirits of the western world gathered to pool
   their experiences for the largest status quo of knowledge ever recorded until
   then. Its impact was inconceivable at the time and paved the way to the civilization
   we know today. Today the same is certainly true for the Internet and maybe so
   for the open-source movement. In this context the significance of OpenOffice.org
   exceeds being "just another good software," but is rather a significant comment
   on how we interpret progress. </p>
 <p>For the full article, &quot;Halfway to Literacy,&quot; please go to Jost Ammon's
   <a href="http://www.openbook.gmxhome.de/OO%20aniversary%20story.html">page</a>.
 </p>
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	<h2>Community Stories</h2>
	<br>
	<h4>OpenOffice.org and the Promise of Collaboration</h4>
	<p>2001 October 13 </p>
	<p>-Jost Ammon, <a href="http://whiteboard.openoffice.org/marketing/">Marketing
	Project Co-Lead</a> </p>
	<br>
	<p>I have ever been an addict to music. Of course I've always wanted to share
	my experience with music. The Net offered me totally unexpected opportunities
	to do so, first, by enabling me to participate in various mailing lists with
	others who share the same interest as I, and whom I would never have met where
	I live, later in getting acquainted with Lyle Mays, composer and keyboarder
	to the Pat Metheny Group, who was open enough to enter an email relationship
	with someone he didn't know. And when I thought of writing an essay about this
	virtual/non-virtual acquaintance with Lyle and with others, I began to explore
	this new medium which offered possibilities that go far beyond of what is possible
	with the good old linear and two-dimensional text, based on black letters on
	a white paper.</p>
	<p>I wanted to create a website that would reflect my interests and allow me to
	communicate with my virtual (and nonvirtual!) friends. And as I started my website
	I realized I needed an HTML editor. I found some for free, but one of them vanished
	after I had learnt to handle it, or rather it morphed into a bigger word processing
	software I never really got to master. Then I needed software that could edit
	graphics. I found one, but again it didn't have all the features I needed. Finally
	I needed a database for all my emails, and again had to look for yet more software.
	I don't know remember when it was, but one day I found a CD-ROM copy of StarOffice
	in a magazine at the library. I copied it to my PC and started working with
	it. </p>
	<p>It could do everything I needed.</p>
	<p>I could compose my website, write my stories, articles, letters; I could control
	the websites design easily. I could update the source code of my website.
	I could edit the graphics; and I also found that StarOffice contained the database
	I wanted, one that allowed me to index and search through my emails by keyword.
	The more I became attracted to this universal tool for a universal medium, the
	more I learned about Open Source, since Sun Microsystems gave the code of its
	StarOffice to the open-source community helping OpenOffice.org (the software)
	get off the ground. I learned about the free and open spirit of the Internet
	that still lives. And that it lives only through the idea of sharing. I learned
	about OpenOffice.org (the Project), this international community that shares
	the idea of putting the best of each together, in order to create a universal,
	free and open tool for our daily work. And so I found not only the medium and
	its tool but also the spirit that embraces it all.</p>
	<p>OpenOffice.org is just more than just the best office suite, based on incredible
	work by some of the brightest individuals the international Net community
	has gathered together. And its more than just the best software to express
	the universality of the medium called the Net. Free, OpenOffice.org is
	ultimately an expression of our will to grow on the grounds of sharing our freely
	accessible knowledge. </p>
	<p>Perhaps it is good to recall some facts about OpenOffice to get a grip on the
	dimensions of OpenOffice.org. There are more than 3600 subscribers to the mailing
	lists and contributors of code, documentation and bug identification. Over two
	million downloads as of this day, not counting those of the mirrors. At least
	twenty-three ongoing projects including, besides the technical features, things
	like documentation, groupware, and even marketing. There are now open-source
	functions such as printing, spellchecker, and thesaurus in English. We have
	ports available for Linux, Solaris, Windows NT, 2000, 95/98/ME, Linux PPC, and
	soon even Mac OS/X. And last but not least, OpenOffice.org receives nearly half
	a million page hits a week.</p>
	<p>All these open-source efforts remind me a bit of editing the French Encyclopédie.
	Some 250 years ago the brightest spirits of the western world gathered to pool
	their experiences for the largest status quo of knowledge ever recorded until
	then. Its impact was inconceivable at the time and paved the way to the civilization
	we know today. Today the same is certainly true for the Internet and maybe so
	for the open-source movement. In this context the significance of OpenOffice.org
	exceeds being "just another good software," but is rather a significant comment
	on how we interpret progress. </p>
	<p>For the full article, "Halfway to Literacy," please go to Jost Ammon's
	<a href="http://www.openbook.gmxhome.de/OO%20aniversary%20story.html">page</a>.
	</p>
	</body>
	</html>