Neophytos,
I think it is important that I emphasize the following:
- The dotLRN technical advisory board (or any other dotLRN board for that matter) does not directly effect OpenACS in any other way than over the dotLRN gatekeeper (I think Lars' diagram helps make this clear).
- Obviously we want people from the OpenACS community on the dotLRN TAB so that all the gems and diamonds coming out of dotLRN have an even better chance of getting pushed back into OpenACS (to be used by the wider community). It also makes sense to us that these jewels flow back into the base toolkit so that they get looked at from many different perspectives (not just the dotLRN view) and polished so that they become more valuable to all (it also prevents dotLRN from growing out of control).
I have noticed that Don tends to shoot his mouth off, but I can totally understand this considering the passion and energy that he and others have put into OpenACS. 😉
Please remember that dotLRN and its governance is VERY separate from what OpenACS is and OpenACS is much more than just dotLRN. Like you... I would like to see as much of the OpenACS leadership on the TAB of dotLRN to lend the project stability, but dotLRN has very different goals and I am not sure they would all be willing or have the time to deal with some of the things that need to happen for dotLRN to be a success. dotLRN is what it is now because of Ben and others from OF. OpenForce has put amazing work into dotLRN and they have done this in very beautiful ways. I argue that dotLRN beauty and potential is a result of Al choosing these leaders from the OpenACS project (like Ben) to do the job. I hope the strong technical leadership and vision that OpenForce has provided will continue to play an important part in dotLRN's future success. We need Ben and others from Openforce like Yon and Arjun, but we also need to give the users of dotLRN a voice and provide (very minimal) structure so that other large organizations can jump on board without making the ship capsize.
Neophytos, I ask you once again to please reconsider and fulfill your leadership commitments to the next version of OpenACS. OpenACS works, because of volunteers like you and like other projects based on OpenACS dotLRN depends on this. If one thing is needed right now it is leadership and people in the community seem to trust you to provide this (please consider this).
Carl
P.S. Here is a thread that you might want to follow... Community building vs. privacy in online learning I hope it is not as a much of a roller coaster ride as this thread has been.
