Hi,
Just to let you know that V3.2.Beta5 is out, the next V3.2 iteration. Beta4 had an issue with the installation of TSearch2 in certain environments. We already had first feedback from Beta5 that invoice templates are not well preconfigured and that the Petri-Net workflow graphics ("dot") doesn't work. But apart from that it's getting there...
Robert Taylor wrote:
co-operative competition scenario
I agree with Caroline, you've written a great comment about the OpenACS "ecosystem" and its competitive/collaboration dynamics.
As Malte wrote, we're back on the collaboration track, and I completely agree that collaboration in general makes much more sense then competition. The competitive situation in the past happened in the "Translation Sector", which basicly consists of some ~1000 target companies worldwide so that we had really different competitive dynamics.
pure closed source play.
I know, I know... ]po[ is just a contradition in itself: Trying to be a good member of the community (giving back not only installers and code but also marketing etc.) and preparing the ground to become a scalable product company (otherwise we would never have obtained the resources for the "integrated solution" effort that Malte has mentioned). There are a lot of conflicts. So yes, we basicly need to play quite a pure closed-source game to maintain the economic counterweight to our investments into this seriously boring ERP solution stuff...
This strategy fortunately doesn't keep us from sharing quite a lot of our stuff with the community. It's more technical barriers that slow down the integration of our code into OpenACS such as the different permission philosophies and GUI frameworks. I'll just post an update to the Bug-Tracker anouncement (http://www.openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=494700)
explaining our current issues.
Cheers,
Frank