[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
> <http://twitter.com/alfresco> | facebook.com/alfrescosoftware
> <http://facebook.com/alfrescosoftware> |
> > blogs.alfresco.com <http://blogs.alfresco.com> |
> linkedin.com/company/alfresco
> <http://linkedin.com/company/alfresco> | youtube.com/alfresco101
> <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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