[SFD-discuss] RFC: SFI Vision & Objectives

[Matt Oquist]

Hi Rik,

> There is a _big_ problem here with SFI process 'transparency':

Yes; we're working on that. By stating this in our vision statement
we're setting a new standard for SFI. That doesn't mean we've achieved
it already. :)

> >Objectives:
> >    6: ...to be pragmatic, transparent, and responsible as an 
> >    organization
> >---------------------------------------------------------
> >SoftwareFreedomDay.org :
> >   Celebrating Free and Open Source Software [FOSS] in Your Community

> While the overall statement drift has been positive, the substance is 
> seemingly different. Like, please reconcile your footer above, which 
> precisely echoes the long-standing SFD home page - "Software Freedom Day 
> is a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the virtues 
> and availability of Free and Open Source Software [FOSS]" - with this:
> 
> "Decision on policy of terminology to be used:
>     * FLOSS"
> 
> http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/sfi/minutes/Minutes-07-03-01
> 
> Why start confusing people like this now? Project contributors have been 
> signed on to the standing SFD FOSS terminology/deal for three years 
> already, so this seems both abrupt and inappropriate as a 'top-down' 
> foisted change. It recurs in the SFI minutes, so there is no doubt about 
> this muddying of the SFD project aims.

I think I'm less concerned than you are that "FOSS"->"FLOSS" will
confuse people. Also, this is not a foisted change; we're having this
conversation right now on this public list. That's the point...which
brings us back to "transparency", above.

Lastly, we haven't even adopted the vision statement yet, it's still
under discussion (which is what we're doing). And even if we had
adopted it, it wouldn't've been implemented instantly.

So no worries -- is your reason for concern about changing "FOSS" to
"FLOSS" that the target audience of SFD will be confused? I don't
personally have strong feelings one way or the other about using FOSS
v.  FLOSS, but after our discussion at the F2F I am inclined toward
FLOSS, and of course the argument there is that including "Libre"
helps to *avoid* confusing our target audience. Do you disagree?

Regards,
Matt

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