ADempiere e.V. statement

Hello ADempierians,

I would like to give you a short abstract of an ADempiere e.V. Skype-Meeting we held yesterday afternoon 13:00h-14:15 GMT. Our aim was to discuss the current situation in ADempiere Project/ Community, identify the weak points that lead to this situation and gather ideas how to solve the current issues and provide ideas on how to avoid them in the future.

The ADempiere e.V. members that participated in this Skype-Conference were (in brackets you find their SF nick):

Susanne Calderon (scalderon)
Jens Pfeiffer (jmpiloq)
Karsten Thiemann(kthiemann)
Mario Calderon (mar_cal_westf)
Thomas Kreser (kreser)
Dominik Zajac (banym)
Tobias Schöneberg (tobi42)
Georg Schütz (georgschuetz)
Werner Scharinger (wscharinger)
Norbert Wessel (nwessel)
Dirk Niemeyer (needle58)
Kai Schaeffer (kai7)
Mark Ostermann (mark_o)

We had a very lively but always constructive and effective discussion. Everybody was eager to express their ideas and feelings about the current situation and all of us did their best in expressing themselves in an objective manner. At the end we all had consens about the position of ADempiere e.V. (which is here represented by current members).

Here is a short abstract of the result (Upper case is used here to emphasize, not as "scream"):

We support the current approach of the community to solve the situation by establishing better rules for name usage, PMC concept, Code of Conduct as soon as possible. Furthermore we add one new idea to the problem solving process.

What have been the weak points that resulted in the current Situation of ADempiere Project/ Community?

1) Communication
The following issues do not allow efficient communication within the adempiere project:
* (POLITICAL) forum post have a political intention and do not serve the projects purpose
* (EMOTIONAL) discussions are too emotional (too much flames, accusations) and get heated and are seldom cooling down again
* (BUSINESS) ADempiere communication channels are used as "public relation" platform (-> too much "business" in communication)
* (PERSONAL) Personal issues have been carried from private to public instead of remaining privately

2) Name Usage
* No clear usage rules on brand and name usage exist and bring uncertainty to all parties using the name

3) PMC Concept
* The current situation shows that PMC concept is not detailed enough and leaves too much space for interpretation. It is not fully addressing standards for SVN Committing, Permissions, do's and dont's) and is not clearly defining when and how sanctions after abuse can be applied

What are the further steps that we suggest and want to quickly work on? Here is our approach how to solve the problems identified above:
1) (COMMUNITY MANAGER) We believe that we should establish the role/ group "Community Manager" for ADempiere Community.
His/ Her/ Their Job should be to follow the ADempiere communication channels and
* step in when somebody breaks the ADempiere Rules of communication (communication should neither be political, emotional, business-related, personal)
* mediates between conflicting parties
* starts the process of excommunicating members when they break the rules several times
This role should be explicitly not under PMC but be separately established to also make sure that PMC members follow the rules for communication.
PMC should manage the technical part (hard part) of the project and community manager the communication and hygiene (soft part)

2) (RULES OF ADEMPIERE NAME USAGE) An ADempiere e.V. working group is preparing a draft in short term.
3) (REVISION OF PMC CONCEPT) We believe that PMC Concept must be revised, to eliminate weak/ unclear points. An ADempiere e.V. working group is preparing a draft in short term.

Please stay tuned for the detailed suggestions from the mentioned ADempiere e.V. working groups.

Greetings from Sankt Augustin

Mark
(ADempiere e.V.)

Hi,

This is a positive meeting towards a better approach in this project.

I do urge to add positive suggestions.

Regards,

Azzam

Bravo Adempiere e.V.

Mark, Although I am not yet an ADeV member, I volunteer to consult with the working groups if they would like help reviewing drafts.

Regards, Joel S

Hi Joel,
thanks alot. That would be great, i really appreciate that. I hope we will have the first drafts until middle of next week so that the review can then be started.

We all have to pull on the same side of the rope now (it's a thing we say in German, i hope it can bve said in english too ;-) ).

Greetings from Sankt Augustin.
Mark

Hi, definitely this is proving again that ADeV is a very positive force for this project, in practical terms you're bringing the organization needed to the bazaar in a very proper community oriented approach.  Thanks for that.

I support totally the words expressed, and the approach proposed.

I'm eagerly expecting to review the proposals and I'm sure with anticipation that we'll find ways to keep improving.

Of course point 3 of the proposal touch directly my role so I'm available for anything you want there.

Regards,

Carlos Ruiz
Adempiere PMC Head

Mark

Great initiative. I fully support ADeV with the proposed direction, if I can help in any capacity just let me know.

Regards

Ramiro

Please can ADeV publish the full text of this skype conference (if possible)? I have my own view here http://sourceforge.net/projects/adempiere/forums/forum/611167/topic/3751471?message=8491609

Call me a skeptic but i wonder who can fill the community post? And why isn't my admin rights revoked?!?!?!!!

:)
Redhuan D. Oon
Greetings from Sungai Buloh

red1,

we actually talked with each other :-) The statement is the full text of this skype conference.

Kind regards,

jmpiloq

Nice answer Jens. Thank you! :)

Many thanks to ADempiere e.V. for their efforts to improve the management of the Adempiere project.
I hope that the role of ADempiere e.V. can be expanded to be the legal custodian of the project.
For those people who think we should have a USA based foundation the following is interesting reading
http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2010/07/sawyer-on-why-bilski-really-means-that-software-companies-should-leave-the-us.html
regards
steven

Hello ADempierians,

thank you all for your responses. I just want to give you a short status update to our statement from last week and the work done so far.
We have been working in groups on the mentioned whitepapers/ concepts. We will discuss them internally in ADempiere e.V. until wednesday next week (@Joel, @Carlos: Thank you for providing your consultancy. We will send you our drafts on monday and are happy to hear your opinions about them.). Our aim is to make our whitepaper/ concept public until Friday next week.

Please stay tuned and have a nice weekend.

Greetings from Sankt Augustin

Mark
(ADempiere e.V.)

Hi Mark,

I also volunteer to look over any drafts of documents that you produce.

Regards,
Zeeshan

Hi everybody,
thanks to all of you, volunteering in reading drafts/ proposals. I have posted the first proposal (others are going to follow near term) created by ADempiere e.V. members here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/adempiere/forums/forum/611167/topic/3784836

All participating ADempiere e.V. members would like to invite all of you to take part in the discussion and are very eager to read your feedback.

Thanks alot in advance.

Greetings from Sankt Augustin.
Mark