Just so you know, I have now made sure that all previous versions of the SCA are available at http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/contributor_agreement.jsp

I don’t know how long the transition will take - I could make excuses as to why it’s taken so long but I’m sure you don’t want to hear those. Instead, I believe that substantial progrss has been made on a number of fronts. I believe the primary Merucurial repository will be out in the next several months along with at least one of the other consolidations. All of the work for the Indiana project is already being done completely out in the open and there are a number of outside contributors integrating changes directly with any sponsor. And there has finally been progress on a bug tracking system, something which has been tricky since Sun has its own internal bug system which is used for previous versions of Solaris and coordinating those will require an effort.

If you look at the mail archives for opensolaris-arc@opensolaris.org, you’ll see the architectural review for almost all of the work being done for OpenSolaris is completely out in the open (yes, there are still an occasional closed case but those either are due to clerical mistake or for the rare but real proprietary case.)

Perhaps it’s a difference in seeing things as being half-full versus half-empty. I’m as frustrated as anyone that certain things have taken as long as they have but I believe strongly that there will be significant improvements seen on a number of fronts this year.

Just to be clear, I am not objecting to signing in. I’m objecting to signing an NDA as part of the sign in procedure. I don’t mind letting the company know my identity, I do mind being compelled to sign a legal agreement that says that I won’t share anything confidential that I learn while on site. As it was explained to me by the receptionist, they were worried that attendees would glean confidential information from print-outs that might have been left laying around and thus wouldn’t waive the NDA built in to the visitor’s access application.

Emily

As I recall, even IBM used to have the same requirements when we held BCS meetings at Hursley Park. That was over 8 years ago, but you should expect to see all corporations attempt to make visitors sign-in like this by default. I now assume it will be the case (wherever I am holding meetings, Sun or elsewhere) and negotiate it away or pick another venue.

> Best of luck

Thank-you. There are many different approaches to open source and I think OpenSolaris can devise a path of its own.

I do draw a distinct difference in assigning the rights to a non-profit foundation versus a for-profit company.

As for the comment about wreckage, I meant that as my own characterization not as an indicator that I polled the OpenSolaris community and speak for them. I speak merely as an observer.

I have not returned. Shame on Google.

What percentage of the voters were Sun employees vs. non-Sun employees?

Best of luck to you both, if the OpenSolaris community has any chance of survival it will be due to your efforts.

Emily

NDA: I’m not sure it’s fair to blame the User Group for lousy policies by their host, unless it was still in place second time around - have you returned? You have been very lucky not to encounter this common problem before - for example, Google had exactly the same requirement at their London office in Victoria when I attended a community meeting there recently. As it turns out, the requirement is easily set aside at Sun premises and the Sun folks offering the premises to the User Group ought to have known - did you summon one of them?

Contrib Agreement: Actually, this is a best-practice recommended by the FSF(1) and used by Red Hat, Novell, MySQL and many many others (even Apache has one). Sun’s is the best there is in my view. You may not like it generically, but I fail to see why it’s a sure-fire indicator of failure in this case.

OGB composition: The interim OGB that Sun selected was dominated by non-employees. The current composition reflects the voting by the membership rather than Sun’s preference.

(1) http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/foss-primer.html#x1-110002.3