Forum OpenACS Q&A: Follow-Up: State of the OpenACS Community

Over the past few weeks, there have been numerous
discussions concerning the governance of OpenACS, the
project, OpenACS.org, the web site, and generally OpenACS
matters. In the discussion, project direction was temporarily lost.
Last week, I requested that people email me their thoughts
personally, in order to better gauge the community's opinion on
these matters. I took everyone's opinion into account, as long as
those people wrote in. I wish I could read everyone's mind, but
personal email is as close as it's going to get. As promised, no
single email will be posted in a public forum. Instead, I will
summarize the comments that were made, and conclude on
steps to take us forward from here.

First, I want to restate the gatekeepers' personal commitment to
the OpenACS open-source platform. We have no intention of
walking away from the effort simply because issues are difficult
to resolve. To those of you to whom we gave the mistaken
impression that we would give up at the slightest sign of trouble,
our apologies. We never meant to say or imply that. Our
commitment to OpenACS is very strong.

The overwhelming #1 point to be gleamed from the feedback is
that the community wants to focus on releasing OpenACS 4.x as
quickly as possible. Many don't understand what the big deal is
about, don't see what the issue(s) is (are). To paraphrase
certain members, it's time to "get back to coding."

All but two of the emails conclude by saying that members are
either extremely happy, mostly happy, or generally happy with the
current governance. One of those two doesn't mention
happiness or unhappiness, but points out means of
improvement. Most of the emails mention Don by name, stating
that he has expertly led v4.x development.

That said, there is also a certain amount of comments made as
to how the gatekeepers can improve things. In no particular
order, here they are. I will use 3rd person for clarity:

A) Ben is a bit defensive in some of his posts. This needs to be
toned down.

B) Ben isn't as responsive as members would like him to be.

C) Don is, at times, rude and belligerent, and can appear
dismissive of certain points of view.

D) There is a need for better communication about progress and
how to contribute.

E) There is a need for a better web site

F) (to a lesser extent than previous comments) There should be
more attempts at delegation and de-centralization.

So, these community opinions lead us to a number of action
items, in order importance:

1. The discussion of governance is hereby closed.

No value judgment is made as to the various future options
(steering committee). The only opinion stated is that the
community wants coding and v4.x development to be a priority,
and is overwhelmingly happy with the current governance. Thus,
we plow ahead. I will set up a separate discussion forum where
we can discuss management, marketing, pr, etc... But this will
not impact development, and will probably be mostly ignored by
developers and to some extent gatekeepers until the release of
4.x. The priority is the software.

2. A better web site

Musea is working on this. Thank you Musea.

3. Better Communication

We will start by posting more pages as to how people can
contribute, and how they can get in touch with the gatekeepers.
Maybe something where we post a one-page description of each
gatekeeper so that you know who you're dealing with (a person
is more approachable than an email address). We will also
clearly lay out the Charter of the OpenACS organization so that
members have a better understanding of the underlying goals
the gatekeepers are pushing, and so that we have some means
to calibrate our discussions. We will work at getting the word out
on progress, work accomplished, etc... We will put in more time
into giving credit to the right team members (the team page).

4. Ben will improve his approach to communication

A better process for handling emails, a more consistent
approach to handling difficult issues in the bboards, and a
continued attempt at remaining as objective as possible in
handling conflicts. I am really making an attempt to change this
stuff, so please bear with me, and don't hesitate to send me
feedback on how that's going (good or bad).

5. Don will improve his approach to dealing with controversial
opinions

A generally less confrontational approach. Don't get the wrong
idea: Don is project leader, and he will continue to have to put
his foot down on numerous occasions. In this process, he will
continue to make some people unhappy. The attempt here is to
tone down some language to alleviate unnecessary flame wars.
This is not a condemnation of Don's management, given the
amazing results he's produced and that almost everyone
acknowledged in their feedback.

6. When OpenACS 4.x core is released, we will reevaluate
means to decentralize control.

It's important not to break the momentum we have going on
OpenACS 4.x. Furthermore, it has always been and it remains
the gatekeepers' strong opinion that, once the core is ported,
there will be instantaneous de-centralization of the process
when anyone can write/port a package. Thus, the time for
evaluating how to grant more decentralized power is after the
core has been released and the situation is reassessed.

Given that this is the community's clear will, these decisions are
final. We will not continue the governance discussion (at least
not for now). We will work to improve along the lines of the
suggestions we received. The gatekeepers are happy to receive
more suggestions like the many constructive ones I received by
email. But it's time to move on. It's time to work on OpenACS 4.x
and put out a serious product that puts us on the map in a very
serious way.

The gatekeepers appreciate all the feedback. We will strive to be
better leaders, better communicators, and generally better
human beings without ever compromising the strong principles
that got us all here in the first place.

Finally, let's not forget one very important fact: OpenACS is
rapidly gaining in popularity. We are growing into a strong,
diverse community with serious systems being built on
OpenACS software. Everyone involved should be
proud of this! We are kicking butt! The best thing we can do to
keep this momentum going is to *focus* on the goal, and the
goal is the product. We will do that. And OpenACS 4.x will be
amazing, thanks to everyone's contribution.

As always, if you have feedback about the general state of
OpenACS, you should feel free to get in touch with any of the
gatekeepers personally, or with all of us at
mailto:gatekeepers@openacs.org.