[OOTB-hive] Perception of Order of the Bee

Martin Cosgrave martin at ocretail.com
Thu Oct 16 23:24:35 BST 2014


+1 to what Boriss and Ole have said

I think all of us on the board have been encouraged by the response to 
us by the Alfresco management and I think we look forward to working 
cooperatively to ensure that Alfresco Community remains a fantastic open 
source product.

On 17/10/14 00:01, Boriss Mejias wrote:
> Hi Richard,
>
> Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts and what you have observed as 
> the perception of the Order of the Bee within Alfresco. You are doing 
> a great job a Beekeeper and we are taking your comments into account.
>
> I'm rewriting the email I sent to the list as a blog post for the 
> Order, and I put a sentence to emphasize that we are targeting 
> collaboration.
>
> And the Honeycomb will be a distro from the Order of the Bee and the 
> community, that enhances Alfresco Community Edition, which is a 
> product of Alfresco Software Inc. I think that sets thing as we want 
> them to be... actually, as we want them to bee.
>
> cheers
> Bee Mejias
>
> On 16 October 2014 22:15, Ole Hejlskov <ole at phpfreak.dk 
> <mailto:ole at phpfreak.dk>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Richard
>
>     I really appreciate your honesty and this is *exactly* the kind of
>     communication
>     we need between the Order and Alfresco.
>
>     The statement about the fork is going away, like Oksana said, as
>     we have been
>     over it a few times, but you also have to acknowledge that when we
>     founded the
>     Order there was a great deal of FUD in the community. Everyone was
>     scared of
>     Alfresco’s next move, and the gap between community and enterprise
>     only
>     seems to grow, without any clearly defined statements about the
>     future of
>     community.
>
>     Our main concern, at the time, was that Alfresco was closing the
>     source down,
>     and if that were to happen someone would have to take charge.
>     Do we want to do this? No, of course not.
>     No one can phantom the amount of work there’s involved in
>     maintaining a fork of a
>     project like that.  If we’re forced to do so, we might just do it,
>     but we should *not*
>     focus on that.
>
>     We are all about collaboration, coordinating efforts and helping
>     Alfresco be even
>     more open in every meaning of the word. That is where our focus
>     is, and the
>     mission statement should reflect that.
>
>     From the time we launched the Order everything went SO fast. We
>     grew to 30+
>     members in the first week, and we’re at 80+ members now. We
>     quickly got
>     recognised by Alfresco, and there has been great commitment from
>     Alfresco’s side,
>     but we are still a very young organisation and we are still
>     figuring everything out.
>
>     That being said, there are still some people in the community (and
>     the Order) who
>     only sees problems, and does not really (or simply refuses to)
>     believe that Alfresco
>     is serious about their open source commitment.
>
>     To all of those who still have doubts please remember that trust
>     is a two way street.
>
>     Alfresco has embraced us, given round applause at summit and
>     overall received
>     us with their arms wide open. We should repay the favour by
>     trusting them, and
>     continue to build a strong and communicative relationship.
>
>     I really feel that the future will be much more transparent and
>     open. There will be
>     a few mistakes along the way - on both parts. We just have to
>     continue to be
>     open and honest with each other.
>
>     I hope this addresses your concerns. Feel free to forward the
>     email to anyone who
>     has doubts about the true nature of the Order.
>
>     /Ole
>
>     On 16 Oct 2014, at 19:37, Richard Esplin
>     <richard.esplin at alfresco.com <mailto:richard.esplin at alfresco.com>>
>     wrote:
>
>     > Boriss' email about Summit prompted me to share a concern. I
>     completely agree
>     > with Boriss' upbeat view of Summit and the role played by Order
>     of the Bee. It
>     > was very positive.
>     >
>     > I want to caution that we need to be careful to emphasize the
>     cooperative
>     > relationship the Order of the Bee has with Alfresco Software.
>     >
>     > Those who have read the list archives know that the goals of the
>     Order of the
>     > Bee are very complimentary to the goals of Alfresco Software.
>     The founding of
>     > the Order was motivated by concerns that Alfresco Software was
>     moving away
>     > from its open source roots, and the organization of the Order
>     prompted
>     > Alfresco management to examine that perception and to formalize
>     the role open
>     > source plays in our current strategy. Alfresco leadership did
>     not feel that
>     > they were moving away from open source, but they recognized that
>     they had
>     > stopped emphasizing it as they focused on increasing the
>     go-to-market
>     > capability of the company. Alfresco Software now intends to
>     renew its
>     > investment in our open source and developer communities. This is
>     an important
>     > result.
>     >
>     > However, I have heard a few Alfresco employees (not management)
>     refer to the
>     > Order of the Bee as "a gun to the head of Alfresco threatening
>     to fork if
>     > Alfresco doesn't meet their demands". This perception is not
>     constructive as
>     > it undermines our cooperative relationship.
>     >
>     > Alfresco management recognizes that the governance of Order of
>     the Bee
>     > provides a useful assurance to our customers that Alfresco is
>     truly an open
>     > source alternative for content management. We also recognize
>     that no product
>     > will meet everyone's needs, and one of the strengths of open
>     source is that
>     > people can fork at any time to meet their own objectives.
>     >
>     > We also recognize that many of the goals of the Order of the Bee
>     are around
>     > filling gaps where Alfresco should do a better job in nurturing
>     our open source
>     > community. We are humbled to admit our deficiencies, but we are
>     grateful for
>     > the help.
>     >
>     > Likewise, Order of the Bee has previously discussed forking
>     Community Edition
>     > and decided that is not part of the current mission. So long as
>     Community
>     > Edition continues to be an innovative product, it seems like a
>     waste of effort
>     > to divide the larger Alfresco community.
>     >
>     > The perception that Order of the Bee is a group who is hostile
>     to the business
>     > interests of Alfresco Software is rooted in misunderstandings
>     and a lack of
>     > trust. That will take time to over come.
>     >
>     > Likewise, I sense that there are many members of the Order of
>     the Bee who do
>     > not trust Alfresco management. Though I might not always agree
>     with the
>     > company's course, I feel that they have been transparent in
>     setting a course,
>     > following it, and explaining when it changes. I am optimistic
>     that open source
>     > is again an explicit part of our strategy. It will take time for
>     the community
>     > to see the results of these efforts, and those who only want to
>     see the
>     > problems will probably never be convinced. Our execution has
>     always had gaps,
>     > but members of the Order of the Bee can help recognize the good
>     things
>     > Alfresco Software is doing.
>     >
>     > Having personally spoken with the leaders of both Alfresco
>     Software and Order
>     > of the Bee, I see trust consistently growing. I recommend we be
>     cautious to
>     > create an atmosphere that nurtures trust and collaboration. We
>     need to be
>     > aware that some of our jokes undermine that trust, some of our
>     efforts might be
>     > misunderstood, and we often need to overcome a negative
>     preconception. We need
>     > to go to lengths to engage not just with Alfresco senior
>     management, but with
>     > employees throughout the organization, as well as partners and
>     customers.
>     >
>     > Thank you for all of your efforts and enthusiasm.
>     >
>     > Richard
>     >
>     > --
>     > Richard Esplin
>     > Head of Community Relations
>     > Tel: +1 801 855 0866 <tel:%2B1%20801%20855%200866>
>     > Mobile: +1 801 735 4220 <tel:%2B1%20801%20735%204220>
>     > Skype: esplinr
>     >
>     > Alfresco
>     > Simple + Smart
>     >
>     > alfresco.com <http://alfresco.com> | twitter.com/alfresco
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>     <http://youtube.com/alfresco101>
>     >
>     > Join us at Alfresco Summit | San Francisco, Sep 23-25 | London,
>     Oct 7-9 |
>     > http://summit.alfresco.com
>     >
>     >
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