[To the Eclipse Foundation Executive Director: Please notify the
eclipse foundations board members about this Open Letter. Thank you. ]
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time needed:
- This Message: ~10min
- Evaluation Summary: + ~15min
- Evaluation Summary Thread: + ~20min
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ABSTRACT:
1) Release permanent Budget for: Open Source User Dedication /
Representation
2) Add a user representative to the eclipse foundation board.
3) Release one-time Budget for: Independent Efficiency Management
(Limited Time)
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You may have noticed my appearance in the eclipse community within the
last months.
I have evaluated the eclipse foundation based on public available
resources within eclipse.org (website, newsgroups, Issue Tracking
System (bugzilla), mailing lists [slightly] ).
My preliminary draft summary:
[NEWCOMER] - Evaluation Summary: What is Eclipse NOT !
http://www.eclipse.org/newsportal/article.php?id=52&group=eclipse.foundation
[Many things are clarified if you read all the thread.]
[note: Iʼve not provided pointers to backup my arguments.]
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You'll find some more topics within the newsgroup "eclipse.foundation",
which essentially summarize my initial findings and suggestions.
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I would like to suggest the Eclipse Foundations Board three important
steps.
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1) Release permanent Budget for: Open Source User Dedication /
Representation
There are two basic concepts, which seem at first view contrary:
- "commercially guided foundation government" (which is partly closed
/ nontransparent)
- "open source guided foundation projects" (open and transparent,
with small exceptions).
The Foundation should accentuate its commitment to the eclipse open
source _user_ community [especially all those people primary interested
in no-cost toolsets].
If the board approves the budget for a "EMO director dedicated to open
source users", reputation within the open source community would be
increased (This is especially true as the eclipse foundation's board is
mostly populated by commercial members).
a) The board should add one person to the EMO:
- Director, Eclipse Open Source User Community
- (similar to the position "Director, Eclipse Vendor-Ecosystem").
He would be responsible for:
- assisting users within the newsgroups (foundation related issues).
- building the interface between user community and EMO / Board.
- ...
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2) Add a user representative to the eclipse foundation board.
The Foundation should add a board representative for the open source
_user_ community.
The process for the selection (e.g. voting) should be discussed within
the community.
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3) Release one-time Budget for: Independent Efficiency Management
(Limited Time)
[Efficiency Management = System Evaluation, Barrier Detection, Barrier
Reduction]
Of course, many different companies or independents could be contracted
for this.
An optimal Efficiency Manager has analytical and abstractional
capabilities (a common skill set within IT) but _low_ amounts of the
systems domain knowledge [this way hitting on much more barriers, which
long time users simply circumvent due to known solutions].
This is the main reason why eclipse long time users, members and
developers cannot fulfil this task on the System "eclipse".
And of course: most (if not all) are busy with their daily work!
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I've invested already around 500 hours for a first level eclipse
teach-in. Not with the main goal of learning, but with the main goal of
detecting barriers.
I would like to offer you my services for a time frame of 3 months
(goal: eclipseCon in Feb. 2005)
You find below the exact email which I've sent to the Eclipse
Foundations Executive Director on 2004-10-08.
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I am aware that you are an open source project.
But, aren't you a little bit more?
My offer targets effectively the strategic members (which provide most
of the financial backup) and the vendor-ecosystem of eclipse.
The monetary investment would pay out due to higher throughput of the
development (simplified: higher efficiency, lower costs) and the higher
community-entry/user-contact ratio (= more potential customers,
especially for add-in providers).
You can contact me either within the eclipse.foundation group or via email.
Thank you for your attention.
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Copy of the email sent to Executive Director on 2004-10-08:
"
Mike,
first of all thank you for the creation of the eclipse.foundation
newsgroup.
You should know me now a little from my eclipse newsgroups
contributions. Beneath evaluation of eclipse.org, this was something
like a showcase of my skills, say a 'live resume'.
It may interests you, that I have trained public analysis/conversation
for a long time. In the last 4 years I have 'lived' around 1 year in
online discussion media.
I would like to assist eclipse in becoming the undoubtalbe no. 1 in the
IDE/tool/framework market. One reason is that I will most possibly use
it for my own long term projects.
I estimate that I could increase the efficiency of the team / community
within 3 months - without any influence of the daily production flow.
To give you a factor: productivity gain of around 5%.
This would happen due to 'chirugical' interventions, mainly on the
public available infrastructure and partly within the community (very
'light' changes, as community is very sensitive to such things).
This would happen in parallel to some structural and content redesign
(criteria: clarity, efficiency) of the website, which you could use as
an template for the new website.
I have currently all the eclipse.org domain knowledge active, thus I
would start with full efficiency.
We can start with a smaller chunk (thus you need to release only a
small budget), e.g. one week in which I create:
- a summary of findings
- one or two demo webpages
- further processing suggestions, grouped for three months.
If you like my work and are able to increase the budget:
- I'll continue with processing the suggestions for the first month.
- evaluation of results, possible extension for 2nd month.
- evaluation of results, possible extension for 3rd month.
[the 3rd month would be most possibly partly on code level, which is
basicly my strongest point.]
I can assure you that I am the ideal person for this task - and i am
already full of enthusiasm and energy!
Thank you for your attention - and please let me know if you are
interested!
Ilias Lazaridis
.