On Saturday 12 July 2008, Amos Shapira wrote:
> 2008/7/12 Shlomi Fish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> > Well, the beauty of MediaWiki being free-and-open-source-software (FOSS)
> > is that you are actually *able to do it* and *allowed to do that*. If you
> > cannot
>
> Sure.
>
OK.
> > do it yourself, you can always convince your work to hire someone to do
> > it for you, raise a bug bounty, etc. It may actually be cheaper than
> > shelling money for a proprietary solution which may turn out to have
> > other bugs, mis-features, missing features, etc. and that may be
> > discontinued or not keep up with the times.
>
> You know the old saying about the difference between theory and
> practice? "In theory, it's practical. In practice - it's only a
> theory".
Interesting variation. I'm familiar with the Unix fortune version:
{{{{{{{{{
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice,
there is.
}}}}}}}}}
>
> Translating your suggestion to specific steps, it would involve us in
> having to define a project of what we want to have been done, how to
> do it, tender for contractors, interview them to decide whether they
> are fit for the job, allocate time to track the project etc. etc. and
> all this without the certainty of it even getting something useful at
> the end of this tunnel.
Ouch! Sounds like a lot of red tape. How big is your company?
>
> Compare this to just researching existing products, comparing their
> existing merits, price, requirements and fitness for our needs, and
> just buying them.
I see.
>
> All this for something which is not the core of our business, just
> another tool to help us run the main task (which is to sell totally
> different software and services).
OK.
>
> > For the record, I am now between jobs and am willing to contribute to
> > open-source (or non-open-source projects) for the right price. Other
> > people may also be available. I have a working knowledge of PHP and am
> > familiar with using MediaWiki as a user and to customise it. I'm sure
> > that you can also find other people who can do it.
>
> Good luck with your job hunt.
Actually, I'm not looking for a job right now. I'm taking some time to rest.
In the meanwhile I have several commercial *and* open-source ideas I'm
contemplating to pursue.
> Maybe you can do this stuff for
> MediaWiki to pumper your resume :).
There are several things that bother me about MediaWiki and I've considered
contributing to it. Not sure if the issues you have with it are at the top of
my list, but I may get to what I need. To paraphrase on what I heard: "if you
know a tool well enough, then you can tell that it sucks.".
In any case, I don't like things to work on pro-bono, but rather time and
motivation to work on all of them, even now when I'm unemployed.
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/
What Make Software Apps High Quality - http://xrl.us/bkeuk
I met a guy in the bar, talked to her and she gave me her phone number.
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