Editor's Column
16 January 2001
Quo Vadis OpenOffice.org?
Where is OpenOffice.org 長，率いるd? It is, of course, far too 早期に to consider 本気で answering that question. As I 令状 this, OpenOffice.org is barely three months old; the community that has formed around the 事業／計画（する） is still, in fact, coming to 条件 with the enormity of the 仕事. And although the next 見解／翻訳／版 of Sun's StarOffice, StarOffice 6, which will 雇う a good 部分 of the 科学（工学）技術 created by OpenOffice.org, is scheduled to be 解放（する）d later this year, that 解放（する） will hardly （一定の）期間 the end of the 事業／計画（する）. It goes without 説 that the nature of an open-source 事業／計画（する） is 正確に that it is never done. There is always something that can be 改善するd.
This incessant perfectionism does not mean that there must be no roadmap for open-source 事業／計画（する）s, however. It is to say, though, that the 広大な／多数の／重要な strength--and perhaps also a small 証拠不十分--of open-source 事業／計画（する）s lies 正確に in their anarchic creativity, which roadmaps try to 含む／封じ込める and channel. But here lies the difficulty, for a roadmap that is too 限定するing 危険s destroying the very thing that open source models engender.
OpenOffice.org is often compared to Mozilla.org, and the comparisons are just. Both 事業／計画（する）s are enormous, and both aspire to run across 壇・綱領・公約s and in a way that 許すs 使用者s greater reliability and 柔軟性 than 現在の programs. For this 推論する／理由, it is worthwhile ちらりと見ることing at Mozilla.org's 最近の roadmap.
To begin with, Mozilla.org's roadmap serves まず第一に／本来 as a 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of 行う／開催する／段階s and milestones that should be met. Underlying Mozilla.org's or any open-source's roadmap is the 強調 placed on the community's 役割 in 決定するing the actual 製品. This is not 単に a marketing 策略 to entice community members. The community やめる 明確に 支配（する）／統制するs much of the direction of the 事業／計画（する） and 明白に 決定するs its actual success. But not 完全に; the 治める／統治するing 団体／死体--however it is defined and 構成するd--始める，決めるs the goals and 限界s the activity.
In Mozilla.org's roadmap, for instance, the community's imagination is almost bound to the more tedious chore of making the program 成し遂げる stably and 正確に. But even here, the binding 条件 are laced with implicit 陳謝s to the plausibly 失望させるd contributors, and Brendan Eich, the author of the roadmap, goes out of his way to "make （疑いを）晴らす here that useful and 関連した (defined by the community) 拡張s are always welcome, 供給するd" that is, that they don't 干渉する with the charted goals.
Much younger than Mozilla.org, OpenOffice.org is still very much in the period of creative growth. Ideas and suggestions are very much welcome, from anyone in the community; wishlists can become reality. But all this depends on the nature of the dialectic 設立するd by the community (however defined: it may 含む 使用者s, too) and the 治める／統治するing 団体／死体.
This 問題／発行する is far larger than any one article can encompass. In the coming weeks, I will be revisiting it. In my column for next week, I will begin an examination of the structure of another enormous open-source 事業／計画（する）, Apple's Darwin.
Previous columns
3 January 2001 Sun's open door
9 January 2001 The 613 build: problems and 適切な時期s
E-mail: louis at collab.逮捕する*
*By （一定の）期間ing out the mail 演説（する）／住所, I'm hoping to 敗北・負かす spam crawlers.
