OCW is its own project, independent from dotLRN. OCW is a
content delivery effort, not a collaboration-oriented one.
With regards to our releasing details about dotLRN: I have put
significant thought into how OpenForce can open up the
codebase without creating unhealthy expectations (product
readiness and backwards compatibility) before it's really
possible. I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that Eric
Raymond's "release early, release often" concept is deeply
flawed for certain categories of software. And yes, I have certainly
repeated the Raymond mantra many times myself in the past,
so I'm not blaming anyone for saying it now. I just believe that we
(OpenForce) are learning something new about open-source
development through dotLRN.
No, I do not think that we acted in a perfect way, because we
could have at least released design documents earlier (as Don
mentioned in another thread). But I do think there are very good
reasons why releasing code before this week would have been
premature and even risky to the success of the dotLRN effort as
a whole.
A few points to conclude: 1) Code is coming shortly, 2) There will
be means of contributing made available progressively, but
contribution *is* most definitely encouraged, 3) I'll be writing up
my thoughts soon on the open-source development process as
it applies to dotLRN,
