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List:       koffice
Subject:    Shawn Gordon Interview - disturbing
From:       John Califf <jcaliff () usit ! net>
Date:       2000-09-26 1:38:07
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I have just finished reading the Shawn Gordon interview with Dennis E.
Powell at Linux Planet and I am getting a sick feeling.  There was quite
a bit about the Kompany and its role in KOffice development.  In the
interview Shawn clearly stated that since he is paying for parts of
KOffice development, the focus of that KOffice development activity
should be his company, not this mailing list, but that the KOffice
development list and the open, non-commercial effort here must somehow
be accomodated. I think he has everything ass-backwards.

Further he clearly stated that he didn't want too many people involved,
and implied that he should maintain some control over who is involved. 
What gives Shawn Gordon the authority to make such decisions?

I will quote directly from the interview so there is no
misunderstanding. 

"There are some details to work out, in terms of what goes where and how
it works. There is the KOffice site for development, and there's our
site.  Things that we're paying for to do, I'd kind of like to keep
where I've got 'em, because it's our employees doing them, but it's also
open, so I'm trying to figure out the details of how best to make that
work. There are certain things that we want to get everybody involved
in, and some things we'd like to control a little more closely because
we have a specific objective of how we want it to work, and a thousand
people junping in could take it off in directions that have nothing to
do with that objective".

There's a lot more about some kind of a "benevolent dictatorship" like
the Kompany should establish one because it's paying some people, and so
on. It all makes me very uneasy. No, the Kompany should have absolutely
NO CONTROL over Kde development, regardless of who it is paying. This is
just as bad as Gnome Foundation, or worse.  

I've been working on Kword for almost two weeks now regarding this list
to be the focus of activity. Something seemed wrong - there was very
little activity on the list.  Maybe this is part of the reason.  I
understand that the Kompany is paying some people to work on KWord and
now learn that they are taking control of KImageshop, another project I
wanted to work on badly.  I appreciate the Kompany's benevolence in
paying people, and wouldn't mind being paid myself, but that would not
change how I feel about this issue. 

First, KOffice was well established and most of the coding was done long
before the Kompany paid anybody.  Secondly, it is highly improper to
move the focus of ongoing KOffice projects to a commercial site.  If the
Kompany starts new components that work with KOffice or enhance it, that
is different. Anyone can fork the code, or contribute new components.  

Finally, I do not want a commercial manager deciding who should or
should not be involved in KOffice development. If Shawn Gordon wants to
make such decisions he should contribute code like others do, subject to
discussions on this list and peer review.  There are several programmers
who I have corresponded with here who I assume are getting paid by the
Kompany.  They have earned my respect as individuals.  What is good and
natural can become influenced by less wholesome cosiderations, though,
such as working to meet the goals of a commercial entity rather than the
KOffice project, which should be free of commercial control - no
exceptions.

I would like for Shawn Gordon to clarify these things, but regardless of
how he does that commericial control of KOffice is intolerable to me.
Let the Kompany and other interested parties pay people if they want,
but this gives them no right to control the work.  Decisions about
KOffice should be made here on this list, by the developers, and should
be made *nowhere else*.  There are also developers like myself working
on KOffice who are not getting paid but do it mostly as a labor of love.

John Califf


PS  I will not be able to participate in follow up in this thread
because my ISP is messed up -  I can send by not receive email right
now.  But I will read any responses posted with a browser.

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