RE: [school-discuss] [Open Admin] SIF/XML tools for Data Transfer .

["Matt R. Jezorek" <matt@bluelinux.org>]

Wow that looked like my school work with all the red marks :)

On Mon, 2003-10-06 at 12:03, Chris Puttick wrote:
> Next commentator please (this may well now be rather British in tone, but
> hey, I'm British!).
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Chris
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matt R. Jezorek
> To: Chris Puttick
> Sent: 10/6/03 4:36 PM
> Subject: RE: [school-discuss] [Open Admin] SIF/XML tools for Data Transfer .
> 
> On Mon, 2003-10-06 at 11:29, Chris Puttick wrote:
> > Can I return it as an OO.org doc? Makes commenting/modifying easier.
> > 
> > I like writing letters; that's manager for you...
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Matt R. Jezorek
> > To: schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net
> > Sent: 10/6/03 3:46 PM
> > Subject: Re: [school-discuss] [Open Admin] SIF/XML tools for Data
> Transfer.
> > 
> > The letter to sun please correct it as I pretty much hate writing
> > letters :)
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > To whom it may concern:
> > 
> > In January 2002 EduStructures (http://www.edustructures.com) informed
> > the world that they had aquired the Sun Microsystems ZIS code JaZ and
> > J/SAL packages. It was informed to the public that Sun Microsystems
> > stipulated that the code remain open source and freely available. The
> > freely available code was hosted at opensif.org the OpenSIF project. 
> > 
> > 
> > In more recent times EduStructures has forked the code you provided
> them
> > into trademarked closed source commercial software products. The
> > SIFWorks Platform. While this would be great and dandy during any
> other
> > time I would like to report the fact that they then closed the open
> > source project down claiming that their was not enough developer
> > support. Boasted that there was only 24 messages on the mailing list
> > during the year and downloads have went down. I will address each of
> > these issues to you now.
> > 
> > 
> > The lack of developer support may be true. However it is not the fault
> > of the open source community. If you look at the hoops you have to
> jump
> > thru to become a developer you will notice that not many open source
> > developers are willing to do that to submit a few patches. You had to
> > send a email to info@opensif.org and let them know what work you would
> > like to pursue, then wait for them to get back to you. After that if
> you
> > want to be a source contributor there was no public source code
> > repository. So you would everything had to be in the form of patches
> and
> > mailed to the owner of the file you are patching. This would be a big
> > headache if you patched multiple files over multiple owners. Then you
> > had to wait till it was merged into the tree by the owner. 
> > 
> > This is not exactly a good way to do open source development and
> attract
> > developers to the project. I also feel this is why the developer
> support
> > was low. While I understand you cant give everyone write access to a
> CVS
> > tree you can always give read access so people can keep up. Watch for
> > conflicts etc. Also no open bug database so no one knew where to
> start. 
> > 
> > 
> > The part about only 24 messages on the list during the year is true.
> > However they neglect to say what those messages are on the list. Most
> of
> > them are messages like the one below
> > 
> > 
> > “From: "scottp1296" <scottp1296@y...> 
> > Date: Sun Sep 21, 2003 4:41 am
> > Subject: Still no luck with opensif.org
> > 
> > Am I the only one that can't connect to www.opensif.org? I still
> > get connection refused, so it looks like the host is up, but the
> > web server isn't running. 
> > 
> > I've tried contacting three different email addresses at
> > Edustructures, as well as Eric Peterson, but not one of them has
> > responded.
> > 
> > Anyone have any other suggestions?
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Scott”
> > 
> > 
> > The website just went down suddenly and no response was given except
> the
> > page you now find at http://www.opensif.org/.
> > 
> > 
> > Also claims that the downloads went down are correct as I am sure they
> > can provide stats. But as I know from running several open source
> > projects when you do not release often downloads go down. Only so many
> > people are willing to download a application that is old or no longer
> > working with the current specs. 
> > 
> > 
> > All these excuses may be valid however it the eyes of the public it
> > appears that EduStructures did not actually want the code out in the
> > public domain as you can still not even find a old archive of the
> > release anywhere on the internet. In essense they killed the project
> > themselves by faint promotion and the hoops one had to jump thru to
> get
> > involved. 
> > 
> > 
> > OpenSIF and the fact of having an open sourced ZIS server was a great
> > idea and desperatly needed. I would like to revive the project in the
> > true meaning of open source and provide a cvs tree, updated product,
> > working with the current SIF specification 1.1 and allow this project
> to
> > go forward. I have sent emails to EduStructures asking for the current
> > OpenSIF code as it was when the project died with little hope of
> > receiving it. I have also asked on the OpenSIF yahoo groups list for a
> > copy of the code if anyone had it. I have received no response nor do
> I
> > really expect one at this point.
> > 
> > 
> > I am writing you with the hopes that you would be able to step up and
> > help us the open source community obtain the codebase that you
> > rightfully gave with the stipulation that the code remain open source
> so
> > that I may revive the project and continue working on it.
> > 
> > 
> > Sincerely
> > 
> > 
> > Matthew R. Jezorek
> > 
> > Executive Director
> > 
> > Linux for Education
> > 
> > matt@bluelinux.org
> > 
> > 
>  <<letter_to_sun.sxw>> 
>