<Big snip> Thank you for this email, Jacqueline.
It probably wasn't easy to write. And I'm sorry it had to be writen. I, and many others on this list and off, know you did not act attribaritarily or with malice in what you had to do. Your work, your leadership, your sacrifice, and your vision are appreciated by and fruitful for the OpenOffice.org project. The concept of marketing the project is a good one. I think your suggestion is a great step in the right direction of doing that. To get people involved in the project, we need to get them to understand the project. And for us to effectively market the project - it behoves each of us to understand it ourselves. I've been involved in OOo - primarily through email lists - for over 2 years. There is still much for me to learn. At the same time, there is some that I have learned that I can share with others. This being an open source project, which supports open formats, and open exchange of information - probably the best way for us to learn more about the project is for us to teach each other. The Wiki is a great place for that. We should develop an area on the Wiki that explains what OpenOffice.org the project is - what our goals are - what our structure is - how things like IZ, CVS, mailings lists, permissions, Wikis, subprojects, incubators, etc. work - what the "chain of command" is - the various roles etc. - how QA works - how Marketing works... the whole deal. I doubt one person knows all the answers to these questions. I doubt one person knows all the questions that need to be asked. But the knowledge is there, in Us, as a community. Gosh - I feel like a beatnick a hippie or an IBM Linux commerical. I need to go kill a cute forrest creature and eat the red meat parts of it while I play violent stolen video games on my pirated copy of Windows XP or my modified Xbox - then drive my gas guzzling smog producing SUV to the polling booth and vote Republican. Just for balance. :-) (Just for flame-retardance from that last paragraph - I'll say that some of those things I can't or won't do - some I will and do - just don't take me seriously in that paragraph. It was a joke.) -- - Chad Smith http://www.gimpshop.net/ http://www.whatisopenoffice.org/ Because everyone loves free software! http://www.chadwsmith.com/ Because, admit it, you've got nothing better to do right now...
