On open source communities

A small piece on open source communities in general and OpenOffice.org specific

Each time you enter a shop to buy something, this can be grosseries or a computer program, you have an expectation that it is ok and that everything works as described. You have the right to demand certain quality because you payed for what you have bought. If the new DVD player doesn't work, you can have it repaired, exchanged with another one or in the end, get your money back.

This is not the case when you use open source software from the simple reason that you didn't pay anything. Of cause you can uninstall the software. If you need a piece of software in conjunction with a guaranty, you can buy a commercial application like StarOffice from SUN Microsystems. StarOffice is a commercial version of OpenOffice.org and you can buy StarOffice with both garanties and support.

• How does the open source environment actually work ?
• How can anyone make a business when the software is free ?

From time to time I get a question from people that would like me to confirm that it actually *is* free of charge to use OpenOffice.org. "Can we use it in the company too ?" is the question.

Yes. OpenOffice.org is free of charge. Also in a company - without any limitations.

This can be true because several IT companies has found a possibility to make money on selling consulting and education. These companies doesn't make any money if the application doesn't exist, so the company is indirectly making money on supporting and helping the application development. Furthermore, several companies, organizations and governments that supports the development because they are using OpenOffice.org. By supporting the development, they make sure that the application is developed in a way that ensures OpenOffice.org to be developed in the right direction. You could call it a kind of self decided license fee. In most cases two or several companies or organization stick together and solves a specific problem in common. That way they can achieve something without each of them is getting involved directly.

In Denmark there is a lot of companies, organizations and authorities that is using OpenOffice.org, but as far as I know, only very few of them is actually giving a contribution back to the community. All members of the community are private contributers.

In the last two years of discussion on open standards and use of open source software like OpenOffice.org I have often heard that OpenOffice.org is not good enough and other programs are much better. But I have never heard from anyone that Denmark could participate and contribute to solve some of these problems. In Denmark we raise demands and criticisme, but we don't contribute.

I think this is caused by the lack of understanding for the way open source software works. And how development works.

In Denmark there is a lot of schools that is using OpenOffice.org in education. There must be some of the schools that has made some kind of education material like a syllabus or maybe even a teaching book. It would be much more effective if the schools could get together and develop this material in high quality once and release it under one of the free licenses.

The community behind OpenOffice.org in Denmark would very much like to contribute to get people together. Public schools can even get supported with fundings from the National IT- and Tele Agency.

In 2007 we started a new project in the international level of OpenOffice.org with the purpose to develop some kind of certification of users. A common goal of knowledge. The project is unfortunately partly closed for the moment, because we cant find participants.

Conclusion

Next time you wonder why something hasn't been developed yet or why you can't find a course to join or why you can't open .docx-files in OpenOffice.org or why you can't play multimedia files in presentations properly, change the question to: "How can I help to make it work ?".

You don't have to be a programmer to contribute to development. We can use anybody who can spend a few hours among friends in a wonderful community. Can you write a short how-to description or help us with graphical work or perhaps help us writing press releases. Do you know a lot of politicians or just a lot of people, you can help us promote the cause. There is always a job for everyone. And remember, its always YOU that sets the limits, so you can always say no thanks and back out for a while.

If your company uses OpenOffice.org, please remember to join the reference list on http://da.openoffice.org or http://www.openoffice.org. This is also considered a contribution.

Certification for OpenOffice.org

I joined a new project lately. We are working on a certification program for OpenOffice.org.

I hope that you will be able to call you self Authorized OpenOffice.org user or Authorized OpenOffice.org Specialist some day. Wouldn't that look great on your business card and in your CV ?

Over the last few days I have been reviewing the syllabus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllabus) for Writer and Calc. It's hard work and it takes a lot of time. So far we have been using plain text documents. Today I tried to use MindMapping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindmap) with FreeMind http://sourceforge.net/projects/freemind/ and that has makes the syllabus much easier to overview.

We are not trying to make the training material as it should look. We are only working on the certification, but I expect that learning material will be developed with our syllabus as the outline.

We need people to help us in this work. Teachers and experts. Any one who knows about teaching, certification and people who knows everything about OpenOffice.org.

The original issue still contain much of the work:
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=56980

The Spanish native project made a syllabus some time ago. This has been great inspiration to us:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OOo_Certification_Syllabus

We use the mailling list (under the documentation project):
http://documentation.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=certification

I just created a few pages on the Wiki (Not much content yet):
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Certification

Whats up duck ?

I haven't been blogging that much lately. Sorry, but I feel rather busy at the moment.

• Busy trying to catch up with all the information floating around, both in the community but also regarding ODF and in the NOOOXML world.
• I have spent the last couple of days on a small travel to Aarhus ( http://www.findvej.dk/,8000 ). You know, I also need bread on the table ;-)
  
• Translation of 2.4 is going slowly forward. But we are still missing several hundred strings.
  
• Also preparing the next (December) edition of the Danish newsletter (expected to be out one of the first days in December). Sign up for it here: http://da.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=nyhedsbrev (if you understand Danish)
  
• I am also trying to contribute to the new certification project and today I have submitted my comments to the Spanish syllabus (http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OOo_Certification_Syllabus). Please join the project here if you think you can contribute in any way. Sign up here: http://documentation.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=certification
• And then I have been trying to plan how to approach the new Parliament after the election this month. Hmmm. I think we have to act on this very soon. I better get on with it, eh ?

And then of cause

• I promised my family to be present once in a while. On Saturday I think we will all go to the movie theater together. Perhaps I should ask my wife out for dinner too. Yes, this is a high priority task on the list :-)
  

Danish IT Society supports OOXML as ISO

The Danish IT Society (called Dansk IT) has announced that they will support OOXML being an ISO certified standard. Source is the computer magazine Version2. This is actually no surprise, because the same society is already known as being very friendly to you-know-who. The society claims to be independent from single vendors but earlier this year they commented very positive to dual standards on one of thew reports from The National IT and Tele Agency here (in Danish).

The Society says, that they will ask for a Yes with comments because they find it very important that some of the serious faults in the specification from you-know-who are corrected.

The Danish IT Society is one of the members in S-142/U-34 technical committee under Danish Standards.

This position has already been criticized by another organization OSL (The Danish Open Source Business Association) in the same magazine. OSL is also member of the technical committee. OSL makes some kind of a fool of the Society, when they says:

You have misunderstood the rules for voting

And it is a fact, that it is possible to vote Yes with comments but in the fast-track the comment will be trashed.

The Society is also the managing institution in Denmark behind the European Computer Drivers License witch has actually become a M$ Drivers license in Denmark. Today it's not possible to take that drivers license without being tested in the use of products from you-know-who.

I don't mind that people, companies and organizations takes a stand on subjects like standards and so, but they shouldn't claim to be neutral when they are not. The society enjoys a virtual monopoly on the marked for certification and education and shouldn't use their own marked position to support another monopoly.

Certified OpenOffice.org user ?

Solveig Haugland (http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/) is blogging from LinuxWorld about the lack of a certification program for OpenOffice.org.

First of all, I agree that we need a certification program for open source and OpenOffice.org. The question is, if there are customers for end-user certification ? Unfortunately I don't think so my self. I have some years of experience from Lotus Notes education. My experience is, that there is very little request for end user certification, but there is a marked for end-user education.

There is a tradition in the IT-department, that everybody should get as many certificates as possible, and I think that on the expert level and for programmers, it would be a good idea to make some kind of certification.

As I see it, there are tree levels of education:

1. End user
2. Expert (power users or what ever we choose to call it)
3. Programming and integration

End users
In Europe we have something called 'PC drivers license' (http://www.ecdl.com/publisher/index.jsp). There is also a 'Junior PC drivers license' and a 'Truck certification' for experts. Unfortunately this has actually become a 'Microsoft drivers license' over the last ten years. A few years ago I tried to find sponsors to establish an alternative open source certification, but I had no luck then. Times might have changed since, and I could try again.

For end users, I think the most important thing is to provide them with a qualified education program. Whether they get a test or not, I don't find important. It will be possible use approximately the 'syllabus' from the drivers license for that purpose.

Power users
Certification it is !

Programmers
I would find it natural if Sun Microsystems could provide that. Most of the content is from StarBasic anyway. We most certainly need a certification program.