Apache OFBiz blog

[Jacques Le Roux]

I have opened a community blog for Apache OFBiz at http://blogs.apache.org/. If you are interested to write articles please ask for
a login.

Last month, I read a white paper (livre blanc) from a French IT company http://www.smile.fr/ (250 persons, 1st "open source company
in
France") http://www.smile.fr/publications/livres-blancs/erp-open-source__1 and I think it's time for me to react.

This white paper is well written but they almost completly forgot OFBiz for (IMO) obscure reasons. I think one of the most driving
causes is that companies must make money (we all need to make money ;o). And it's even clear here (from the white paper author:
http://opensourceerpguru.com/2008/02/23/tinyerp-source-published-it-all-started-here/#commentblock) that this company chose to work
with OpenERP (formerly Tiny ERP) and especially with OpenBravo because of their business models (OpenBravo raised $12 million in May
last year http://ostatic.com/blog/open-source-venture-funding-in-q2-up-again). I think also that the leaders of such companies in
France don't want to work with permissive licences like ours. Actually, Olivier Heintz told me 4 years ago, that it was one of the
reason the Neogia team chose GPL instead of Apache licence (they were afraid their work would be stolen). I begin to be upset by all
this (they judge us, plublish it and make the trend) and, more than 4 years after I began to work on OFBiz, I want to speak out of
code. A community blog looks to me like the perfet tool for that (I think also that I will finally open my own blog also, if I find
enough time for it).

Jacques

[David E Jones-3]

For everyone interested in this: please note that the PMC is currently  
discussing how to leverage this resource. The concern is that we don't  
want any single person to be able to step up and post something on the  
ofbiz blog and imply that it is the opinion and position of the  
project as a whole (which I suppose means opinions and positions that  
are discussed with the community, and then as needed voted on by the  
PMC before being made public).

For example, I'm against publishing and going after some of the things  
that Jacques has mentioned here. If we want good press coverage we  
should find things to announce that we think the world would be  
interested in and then create press releases through the ASF PRC. We  
should not complain about how the press is rarely speaking about  
OFBiz, and even writing things that are so incorrect that they  
contradict what is written on the home page for the project.

Also, I know there are people on this mailing list who work on  
opentaps and Neogia: please don't take offense at this and please know  
that you are certainly contributing members of the community and your  
contributions are appreciated. While other community members may not  
like your business practices, it is no reason to start an in-fight and  
I'm sorry that this was mentioned so publicly like this.

For everyone reading in: if you are feeling crazy about the economy or  
are short on work and funds, please keep in mind the things discussed  
in the recent thread that Ean Schuessler started where he mentioned  
the scene from A Beautiful Mind. It doesn't do us ANY good to fight  
eachother, and rather we'll all benefit a great deal more if we all  
look for opportunities in the larger world instead of sniping at the  
success that we see others having.

-David


On Apr 27, 2009, at 2:14 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:

> I have opened a community blog for Apache OFBiz at http://blogs.apache.org/ 
> . If you are interested to write articles please ask for a login.
>
> Last month, I read a white paper (livre blanc) from a French IT  
> company http://www.smile.fr/ (250 persons, 1st "open source company in
> France") http://www.smile.fr/publications/livres-blancs/erp-open-source__1 
>  and I think it's time for me to react.
>
> This white paper is well written but they almost completly forgot  
> OFBiz for (IMO) obscure reasons. I think one of the most driving
> causes is that companies must make money (we all need to make  
> money ;o). And it's even clear here (from the white paper author:
> http://opensourceerpguru.com/2008/02/23/tinyerp-source-published-it-all-started-here/#commentblock)
>  that this company chose to work
> with OpenERP (formerly Tiny ERP) and especially with OpenBravo  
> because of their business models (OpenBravo raised $12 million in May
> last year http://ostatic.com/blog/open-source-venture-funding-in-q2-up-again)
> . I think also that the leaders of such companies in
> France don't want to work with permissive licences like ours.  
> Actually, Olivier Heintz told me 4 years ago, that it was one of the
> reason the Neogia team chose GPL instead of Apache licence (they  
> were afraid their work would be stolen). I begin to be upset by all
> this (they judge us, plublish it and make the trend) and, more than  
> 4 years after I began to work on OFBiz, I want to speak out of
> code. A community blog looks to me like the perfet tool for that (I  
> think also that I will finally open my own blog also, if I find
> enough time for it).
>
> Jacques
>
>

[Jacques Le Roux]

From: "David E Jones" <[hidden email]>
> For everyone interested in this: please note that the PMC is currently
> discussing how to leverage this resource. The concern is that we don't
> want any single person to be able to step up and post something on the
> ofbiz blog and imply that it is the opinion and position of the
> project as a whole (which I suppose means opinions and positions that
> are discussed with the community, and then as needed voted on by the
> PMC before being made public).

To be able to write on this blog, you must 1st create a Jira issue on infra Jira.
Quoting Gavin (from infra team) who created the blog at my demand:
<<Anyone else requiring access to OFBiz blog will need to request an account
via infra jira (component blogs) as automatic signups are disabled. Once
they have an account, yourself as OFBiz Admin can then add them in to the
Blog perms.>>

For the moment any entry in the blog or comment will be sent to the private ML (PMC ML). And I'm not quite sure of this, but I think
we are able to moderate, or maybe rather change after if we don't agree.

> For example, I'm against publishing and going after some of the things
> that Jacques has mentioned here. If we want good press coverage we
> should find things to announce that we think the world would be
> interested in and then create press releases through the ASF PRC. We
> should not complain about how the press is rarely speaking about
> OFBiz, and even writing things that are so incorrect that they
> contradict what is written on the home page for the project.

Yes, it's true that it's easier to complain than finding ideas to promote. But sincerely, reading this, I repeat well written
document, I was upset by this point of view. OFBiz is not a toolbox!
I also agree with you David, that this is not the kind of articles we should write on an official blog and that I should better
create my own blog for this kind of things. I will !
My intention was not to create a battle field with this blog but rather a space for promoting OFBiz. Negative promotion is not the
way, I agree. We should rather use a positive attitude on this blog, right!

> Also, I know there are people on this mailing list who work on
> opentaps and Neogia: please don't take offense at this and please know
> that you are certainly contributing members of the community and your
> contributions are appreciated. While other community members may not
> like your business practices, it is no reason to start an in-fight and
> I'm sorry that this was mentioned so publicly like this.

My intention is not to fight with opentaps or Neogia teams. Actually, they are helping us building OFBiz and this is great!
I must say, and as you envisionned David (http://osofbiz.blogspot.com/2007/06/thoughts-on-ofbiz-derivative-works-pmc.html) less and
less for opentaps. But maybe we have also some responsability in this. Following contributors work is not always easy...
My intention is only to correct the point of view of some persons and organisations outside of OFBiz microcosm who are viewing OFBiz
only as a framework to build on. This is not true and I will write it on my future blog.

> For everyone reading in: if you are feeling crazy about the economy or
> are short on work and funds, please keep in mind the things discussed
> in the recent thread that Ean Schuessler started where he mentioned
> the scene from A Beautiful Mind. It doesn't do us ANY good to fight
> eachother, and rather we'll all benefit a great deal more if we all
> look for opportunities in the larger world instead of sniping at the
> success that we see others having.

One more time, I don't want to fight with anybody, this is not my kind of mind. Ean's suggestion is certainly the best and smarter
way to work together. Maybe I did not write well my message (remember English is not my native tongue). It was not against Neogia or
opentaps but only to try to make understand outsiders (understand IT companies) which are using opentaps, and Neogia that OFBiz is
not only a tool! Of course Neogia and opentaps have specific features that OFBiz has not, else why people would use them instead of
OFBiz ? But this does not mean that OFBiz is only build to be used a fundation.

Jacques

>
> -David
>
>
> On Apr 27, 2009, at 2:14 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
>
>> I have opened a community blog for Apache OFBiz at http://blogs.apache.org/
>> . If you are interested to write articles please ask for a login.
>>
>> Last month, I read a white paper (livre blanc) from a French IT
>> company http://www.smile.fr/ (250 persons, 1st "open source company in
>> France") http://www.smile.fr/publications/livres-blancs/erp-open-source__1
>>  and I think it's time for me to react.
>>
>> This white paper is well written but they almost completly forgot
>> OFBiz for (IMO) obscure reasons. I think one of the most driving
>> causes is that companies must make money (we all need to make
>> money ;o). And it's even clear here (from the white paper author:
>> http://opensourceerpguru.com/2008/02/23/tinyerp-source-published-it-all-started-here/#commentblock)
>>  that this company chose to work
>> with OpenERP (formerly Tiny ERP) and especially with OpenBravo
>> because of their business models (OpenBravo raised $12 million in May
>> last year http://ostatic.com/blog/open-source-venture-funding-in-q2-up-again)
>> . I think also that the leaders of such companies in
>> France don't want to work with permissive licences like ours.
>> Actually, Olivier Heintz told me 4 years ago, that it was one of the
>> reason the Neogia team chose GPL instead of Apache licence (they
>> were afraid their work would be stolen). I begin to be upset by all
>> this (they judge us, plublish it and make the trend) and, more than
>> 4 years after I began to work on OFBiz, I want to speak out of
>> code. A community blog looks to me like the perfet tool for that (I
>> think also that I will finally open my own blog also, if I find
>> enough time for it).
>>
>> Jacques
>>
>>
>

[Adam Heath-2]

David E Jones wrote:
>
> For everyone interested in this: please note that the PMC is currently
> discussing how to leverage this resource. The concern is that we don't
> want any single person to be able to step up and post something on the
> ofbiz blog and imply that it is the opinion and position of the project
> as a whole (which I suppose means opinions and positions that are
> discussed with the community, and then as needed voted on by the PMC
> before being made public).

[hidden email], for each individual person.

ofbiz.planet.apache.org, which aggregates blog posts tagged ofbiz,
with obvious applicability for other projects.

The planet infrastructure could also be designed to pull from external
sources, blogs hosted elsewhere, etc.