Hi, On Wednesday 20 May 2009, Satoru Matsumoto wrote:
Reading this thread, I think this issue has two points and each point can be broken down into sub-points.
* Many people might not be aware of that they *can* sign the Guiding Principles.
- Is the GP accessible for everyone ? - Is the procedure to sign th GP easy to understand ? - Is users.o.o right place to put the checkbox for signing ? Do users know actually the purpose of users.o.o ?
I think these can be determined or analyzed and can be improved if needed.
* Some people feel no need to sign the Guiding Principles.
- What does 'sign' or 'supprt' mean ? Is it clear for everyone ? - What kind of advantages or benefits can users get if they sign the GP ? - Why is the GP needed to be signed ? - Are there any points that people don't want to agree with ?
I myself wish as many users/contributers as possible will sign and support the GP.
I know we have many users and contributers in our community and they have their own minds. We have to respect each other's thoughts and faith.
However, we need to have some principles to be a community, like all democratic countries have their own constitutions. Without such principles, how can we solve problems and make decisions in our community ? The GP is, IMHO, the point of origin where we have to go back if we are not sure which road to take, and that's why it is needed to be signed and supported by as many users/contributers in our community as possible.
People who are interested only in 'products', usually don't mind backgrounds of the products, how and by whom the products is made. Their interests might be: 'Is this OS better than other OSs for me ?' and 'Is this free of charge ?' And if they find that openSUSE is a good - or better - choice for them, they would use openSUSE. Creating and distributing such an OS is one of our goal, but this is not one and only. We have to remember that by reading the GP again and again.
Bryen wrote:
I think that's also an excellent point and adds to the discussion of accessibility to the Guiding Principles. Not the question of whether people know how to get to it, but once they get there, do they understand what's being presented to them? Maybe there should be a translation in as many languages as possible on that page?
I've translated the GP into Japanese[1] already and AFAIK, there's a German translation[2] on the Wiki.
[1] http://ja.opensuse.org/Guiding_Principles [2] http://de.opensuse.org/Leitlinien
But, you know, the GP page on en.o.o is one of the protected pages and we cannnot add inter wiki link - pull down language selector - to the page by ourselves. Protected page doesn't mean nothing can be added. I think its would be useful to add the language selector when the GPs are available in other languages. I let our wiki admin Frank know about it and I can't think of a reason not adding the language selector.
Best N
Best,
-- _/_/ Satoru Matsumoto - openSUSE Member - Japan _/_/ _/_/ Marketing/Weekly News/openFATE Screening Team _/_/ _/_/ mail: helios_reds_at_gmx.net / irc: HeliosReds _/_/ _/_/ http://blog.geeko.jp/author/heliosreds _/_/
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