Letting dogs bark and answering real questions

I was expecting the point in time during the setup phase of the Document Foundation where we would start to hear the first critics and doubts about what we are doing and where we’re heading. This is never a good time, not because the questions make me uncomfortable, but because I either know the answer to these questions or I believe we will find the answer to them, yet, I cannot simply answer them with a short email. It requires more time and effort than that, and sometimes it requires an education that goes both ways: Listening people voicing their doubts, their questions and frustrations, and have people understand that we can’t do everything right at the same time, that we have limits, and that we’re only trying our best.  It is an exercise of patience and passion at the same time, and it’s an everyday drill. Ultimately, we collectively grow stronger, and we come out of this phase as a more effective team than before.

These days I started to see some questions arise here and there, about why we’re not proceeding as fast as we could with the setup of the legal entity, why we sometimes fail to communicate a vision for the project, etc. These are all good questions. Ultimately, we have to react to them by acting on the issues that are raised. Yet it is important to keep in mind that the light at the end of the tunnel is growing fast.  I hope (I know) we will soon see several announcements pertaining to the community and the project. We’re working hard at making the foundation a reality, but we’re also working hard at securing the Document Foundation’s financial future and at improving our community processes. Questions that arise about these matters are legitimate, and if you feel we’re not answering them, then it means we’re either swamped or are currently not able to answer them (because of various constraints). But we do read them, we do hear them. And they will be answered, either in writing, or in solid fact, usually expressed by an announcement. You can help make many things a reality by contributing to the LibreOffice project. It’s fun, it’s even exhilarating and it’s a formidable human adventure alongside being technically exciting and challenging.

Among the questions I was mentioning above, there are some that aren’t really questions, but are critics that are not uttered in a constructive way. These are critics that come from those who have chosen a different course and for whom the Document Foundation is by no means a symbol of digital freedom and software freedom. You will hear them singing many tunes, until their voices gradually faint in the background chatter. We can take some critics in a constructive way, as feedback to build a better project. But extravagant theories claiming that we are the pawns of Microsoft and that we are in fact detrimental to Free Software are delusions of people who do not understand anything to the way free and open source software communities work. Which is a shame, as some of them actually used to “manage” communities (and still claim they do, but one wonders who mandated them to even pretend to the title).  These critics are in fact detrimental to Free Software and to the ODF ecosystem, as they come across as awkward in the light of the events that have taken place since a few months. When everything is said and done, the LibreOffice project’s goals have been the right ones since the very first day and firing people off their roles inside the OpenOffice.org project hasn’t made them any less right today. An old but famous Persian saying tells that caravans keep going on their path while dogs bark at them.  The Document Foundation is a bit like a caravan, in that we’re a diverse community travelling towards one goal and not hesitating to include people on our way. We share our bread, we share our wine, we share our fire, and we even accept donations. Some people will call it awkward, will demand some “adult supervision”, will doubt each of our step, question our skills and postulate ulterior motives, but in the end, we shall prevail and we will be THE Free and Open Source Office Suite, innovative, open standards-based and developed in a transparent and inclusive way. Let the dogs bark. They really only wish they could be leading the party.