At 未来's Gate: The Kansai Open Source and Freeware 会議／協議会 2003
2004-01
The Open Source Desktop
Late last year, at the 招待 of Seiya Maeda, who leads the open-source company Good-Day, Inc., I …に出席するd the Kansai Open Source and Freeware 会議／協議会 in Osaka, Japan. The 会議／協議会 was partly sponsored by Good-Day, which is 大幅に 主要な the open-source movement in Japan. Good-Day その上の enabled my presence at the 会議／協議会, and to Maeda-san and the Good-Day team I am 感謝する for 許すing me to 証言，証人／目撃する and 報告（する）／憶測 on the enormously 利益／興味ing work 存在 done in Osaka and Japan on に代わって of open-source ソフトウェア. If I have 延期するd in 報告（する）／憶測ing on the 会議／協議会 it was because of the importance of the 問題／発行するs raised by 会議／協議会 attendees and 関係者s, who 含むd both members of the unaffiliated developer community and 従業員s from Sun Microsystems, Panasonic, and many other 国家の and international 会社／団体s. Not least, in the four days I was in Japan, I had the 広大な／多数の／重要な 楽しみ of 新たにするing my 知識 with the Japanese Native-Lang 事業／計画（する） lead, Maho Nakata, and 会合 several of the JA OpenOffice.org team, who have made OpenOffice.org an important and powerful 軍隊 in the Japanese open-source community.
The 会議／協議会 含むd both technical discussions and general パネル盤s on open source, 同様に as 非常に／多数の 展示s 占領するing a 床に打ち倒す of the Osaka 革新 中心, and OpenOffice.org was very much there and very popular. In fact, I was struck by how many people …に出席するd the 展示 space and was 知らせるd that this year's 会議／協議会 had drawn even more than last. Open-source ソフトウェア 開発 and （軍隊などの）展開，配備 is growing in Japan, OpenOffice.org is in the 先導, and the 関わりあい／含蓄s of this growth are 深遠な and have been little 診察するd. This account hardly does 司法（官） to the growth but I hope will 警報 readers of the importance of the Japanese OSS 介入.
The 会議／協議会 was, of course, in Japanese, which I sadly do not speak, read, or 令状. However, I was taken care of by Kazunari Hirano (Khirano), who not only served as a brilliant 翻訳家 but also, along with Yasuaki Yamamoto, who helped arrange my trip, as a guide. My thanks to Khirano (his IT 偽名，通称) and Yamamoto-san.
On the first, day, I was 招待するd to 参加する on a パネル盤 with Seiya Maeda, on the open-source desktop, that is, a desktop 環境 構成するd 完全に of open-source 使用／適用s and operating system. The question raised was 利益／興味ing, touching on both the practical and political 関わりあい／含蓄s of creating an 完全に open-source desktop for general use. From some 視野s, this is a nothing new: many of us already use, every day, such a desktop. We use Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, 進化, Gimp, etc.; the number of open-source desktop 使用／適用s is large and growing daily. And all, as is now やめる obvious, do their 職業 efficiently (and are mostly absent ウイルスs, and worms) while 許すing communication with those using Windows and other proprietary systems. 加える, these are all 自由に 利用できる and modifiable by a community of 現実に 利益／興味d programmers: people who want something to work not for 給料を受けている 推論する／理由s but because good ソフトウェア 満足させるs a need, whether aesthetic, 論理（学）の, or 表明するd by endusers. As a result, the 使用／適用s are now not only 強健な and 安全な but very 平易な to use―gone are the days when open source meant only what geeks use. Open source today is a 旗，新聞一面トップの大見出し／大々的に報道する for social and 経済的な success. It is what millions of individuals and ますます 政府s are using out of choice, not because of 独占主義的な 圧力. The point, too, goes beyond 経済的なs. A 政府 that uses Microsoft for public communications 軍隊s its citizenry to buy or さもなければ 得る MS Office. If it uses PDF, for which there is a 解放する／自由な reader, 国民s 直面する sharp 制限s on what can be done with the とじ込み／提出するs (基本的に, they can be printed out) and are still put into the position of communicating with the 政府 using 使用／適用s over whose 支配（する）／統制する and 進化 they have no say. A company, for instance, might 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 for a 以前 解放する／自由な 使用／適用; or it could go out of 商売／仕事, 孤児ing its 使用者s. Open source, and in particular OpenOffice.org, as the 重要な desktop 使用／適用, gives to 国民s the "say" that proprietary systems 保留する. As I argued in my own 贈呈 later that day, the （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） produced by a nation should not be at the mercy of a proprietary 使用／適用.
It was no surprise, then, that the パネル盤 議長，司会を務めるd by Maeda-san on the open-source desktop was so popular. For Maeda-san was 強調するing not just the idea but the reality of a 一括 of open-source ソフトウェア that 最終的に 改善するs upon 存在するing proprietary 代案／選択肢s, all while saving money not just now but into the 未来. Good-Day's 一括, which 含むs OpenOffice.org and the open-source email （弁護士の）依頼人 and news reader Sylpheed, の中で others, would also make his company money: Support would be 申し込む／申し出d, for a 料金.
The 重要な is OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org is crucially important to this 成果／努力, and the Japanese Native-Language 事業／計画（する）, led by Maho Nakata and 補助装置d by, it turns out, many of the people on the staff of Good-Day, is making OpenOffice.org and all it 約束s a reality for Japanese （衆議院の）議長s.
The 利益s of a good, usable, and 解放する／自由な (and 自由に modifiable) office 控訴 in Japanese 延長する 井戸／弁護士席 beyond the 国境s of Japan and far beyond what is imagined as the "open-source community," which, in Japan, and ますます どこかよそで, 含むs 同様に 政府 support and 裏書，是認. It was such 政治の support, in fact, that helped make Japan the 経済的な 超大国 it is today. The work done on the open-source 一括 that 含むs OpenOffice.org was 大いに enabled by Japanese 政府 認めるs, and as such, it 代表するs a model to follow. 政府 認めるs, I learned, in discussions with Takaaki Higuchi, of Sun Microsystems, 基金d 私的な-company 開発 of filters and plug-ins that 追加する functionality to OpenOffice.org. Making 政府 monies 利用できる to meritorious open-source 成果／努力s is 明確に a powerful model, as it 促進するs 私的な 投資s while leveling the market so that monopoly 軍隊s do not 圧倒する small 努力するs.
So let's imagine then that 地域の and even 連邦の Japanese 政府s and 会社／団体s begin to use OpenOffice.org on a 大規模な 規模 (this is やめる plausible, not just possible). 暗黙に, these Japanese 会社／団体s will help 決定する the 商売／仕事 環境 for the 地域. If they use OpenOffice.org, then smaller and いっそう少なく powerful companies will be subtly 圧力d into using it too. To be sure, OpenOffice.org can save とじ込み／提出するs in the MS Office とじ込み／提出する 判型―and can do so by default. But why bother, when doing so introduces the 危険 of error and ends up perpetuating an essentially obsolete system? Why not, rather, ask that all those engaged in 商業 use the same, open and 解放する／自由な 基準? For the difference OpenOffice.org makes lies in its 解放する／自由な and open nature. Using it does not 暗示する 苦しむing an 経済的な hemorrhage; it rather saves money, now and into the 未来.
Controlling 大混乱
In the interstices of the Kansai 会議／協議会, we―the JA Native-Language group and I―discussed 戦略s and 政策s for 前進するing 地元の builds, in particular the Japanese localization of OpenOffice.org. A virtue of open-source ソフトウェア (OSS) 開発 is that it moves 急速な／放蕩な. In the popular imagination, OSS need not 尊敬（する）・点 the 苦悩s of the 法人組織の／企業の 生産／産物 経営者／支配人; what ends up getting built is what the developer wants to build. Of course, the reality is more 複雑にするd than this, and 事業／計画（する）s such as Apache, Gnome, etc., are very 連係させた. にもかかわらず, OpenOffice.org has 歴史的に 異なるd from the "classic" OSS model in that the 核心 製品 (what we think of by OpenOffice.org) 大幅に 平行のd the feature 始める，決める of StarOffice, which is derived from OpenOffice.org.
But in the last year, there have been 重要な changes in both the logic and practice of building OpenOffice.org. Most relevantly, we have sought to 簡単にする the 過程 by which localized builds are produced, qualified, and disseminated. The 仕事 has not been 平易な, as it has 要求するd the 調整 of 非常に／多数の groups, 含むing the QA 事業／計画（する） (http://qa.openoffice.org/).
The 過程 of simplification and 解明 is, その上の, still 現在進行中の. For instance, there has been some 混乱 as to how builds are produced. 歴史的に, for those languages that Sun uses in StarOffice, the localization has been done by Sun, as a 出資／貢献 to OpenOffice.org. The builds have been minimally qualified, and it has been up to the sophisticated and 包括的な 事業／計画（する）s in the Native-Language 連合 to work with the QA 事業／計画（する） to 確実にする that the builds are suitable for 普及した 配当.
ますます, the Native-Language (N-L) groups have also been able to move ahead on 演説（する）／住所ing those things that need to be done for their particular localization. This is a 論理（学）の and やめる 肯定的な step, and in several discussions the JA Native-Language group members (特に one very pleasant dinner), we walked through the logic and 関わりあい／含蓄s of enabling such work.
The idea is to produce builds that 会合，会う enduser needs. 自然に, any build disseminated to the public under the OpenOffice.org 指名する must 会合，会う OpenOffice.org's QA 基準s. Nor would it be a 際立った build―that would lead indeed to 大混乱. But many changes 関係のある to localization do not 影響する／感情 the 核心 source. More 相当な changes would be 論理（学）上 vetted by the 関連した technical 事業／計画（する）. in the 事例／患者 of Japanese, which uses its own font classes and 現在のs a fundamentally more コンビナート／複合体 problem than other languages, developing an 適する open-source build is 特に challenging. (I was 知らせるd that a 重要な ブレーキ on open-source uptake in Japan was 正確に the 欠如（する） of superior open-source fonts and representational 機械装置s for spoken language; the best ones are proprietary. Font design is an artisanal （手先の）技術, good fonts and representational 機械装置s are nearly 作品 of art. Fortunately, open-source 同等（の）s 存在する and are 存在 その上の developed.)
But say a build is ready that 供給するs 機能の 決意／決議 to the some 重要な 問題／発行するs in the source? The 切り開く／タクシー／不正アクセス would not be a vetted 解答, only a 一時的な 決意／決議. In such a 事例／患者, the enduser can have 接近 to the 使用／適用 while, 同時に, better code is worked out. It is as if the enduser were given a beta: not the final build but good enough. Such a logic 治める／統治するd the first year we 分配するd localized builds, and for some 事例／患者s now, it makes sense, as it 供給するs 使用者s with a usable if not finished build (call it a "preview" build). Such builds need however to be distinguished from 完結するd builds.At the end of the dinner 結論するing the 会議／協議会, I was 現在のd with a 調印するd copy of the Developer's 選択 CDROM, which 含むd the 見解／翻訳／版 of OpenOffice.org 1.1.0 (OpenOffice.org 1.1.0-ja) produced by the JA 事業／計画（する）, の中で other things. I'd like to thank, here, the 加盟国s I could read:
… and of course the others whose 指名するs I have 行方不明になるd. I'd like to thank, too, Hiroyuki Yamamoto, who has led the 開発 of Sylpheed. Everyone's 成果／努力s, along with those of Maeda-san, made the Kansai Open Source 会議／協議会 both successful and enjoyable.
