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Katie delegated her bug to update the OSAF Website to me. After taking a look at the content currently at www.osafoundation.org, I've come up with the following proposal.
Welcome to the Open Source Applications Foundation
Looking for Chandler? Chandler Project Wiki
Except where otherwise noted, this site and its content are licensed by OSAF under an Attribution Only Creative Commons License.
Proposal
- Since we no longer post announcements to the OSAF website, fill the 'body' of the OSAF homepage with 'About OSAF' copy.
- Move sub-pages that need to be updated to the wiki for ease of maintenance.
- Bring visual look and feel more in-line with other Chandler Project / OSAF web properties.
Objective of the OSAF website / About OSAF Area?
1. Prove our existence and legitimize Chandler Project's open source / non-profit credentials. This includes:- Contact information
- People
- Corporate FAQ
- OSAF Mission
- OSAF History
- How to give donations. Who's given donations.
- Add link to OSAF Community?
- Funnel people to chandlerproject.org
- Make it easy to download Chandler Desktop, sign up for a Chandler Hub account and download Chandler Server
- Make it easy to get involved and subscribe to our blog and mailing lists
- Funnel people who want to find documentation to the project wiki
OSAF Mission + Corporate History = About OSAF
I think we should combine OSAF Mission and Corporate History into a single About OSAF page. Much of OSAF Mission is out of date and overlaps in spirit with the Vision Document.- Move everything up to 'Build the product' on http://www.osafoundation.org/mission_statement.htm to 'About OSAF'
- Move everything on http://www.osafoundation.org/OSAF_history.htm to 'About OSAF'
ABOUT OSAF
Original 'Our Mission'
Create and gain wide adoption of open source application software of uncompromising quality. Build an innovative, sustainable alternative application despite market inertia.- I think we should remove this. This was written before the flood of web-based PIM apps.
- Change to: Design a new application to manage personal information including notes, mail, tasks, appointments and events, contacts, documents and other personal resources.
- Change to: Enable sharing with colleagues, friends and family. In particular, meet the unique and under-served needs of small group collaboration.
- Change to: Demonstrate that open source software can serve a general audience in the consumer market.
- Remove
- Remove. I wonder if this is necessary after all the changes above.
Proposed 'Our Mission'
Create and gain wide adoption of open source application software of uncompromising quality. Carry forward the vision of Vannevar Bush, Doug Engelbart, and Ted Nelson of the computer as a medium for communication, collaboration, and coordination. Design a new application to manage personal information including notes, mail, tasks, appointments and events, contacts, documents and other personal resources. Enable sharing with colleagues, friends and family. In particular, meet the unique and under-served needs of small group collaboration. Demonstrate that open source software can serve a general audience in the consumer market. Offer a choice of platforms and full interoperability amongst Windows, Macintosh, and Linux versions. Leverage our resources by using an open source model of development.How we started
OSAF started in 2001 when Mitchell Kapor began to investigate the possibility of developing a modern Personal Information Manager using open source tools and methods.Decades of design
One of Mitch’s passions has been designing software applications that people can use in everyday life - tools that enhance the organization and retrieval of important information. Beginning almost two decades ago, he was instrumental in the design of a variety of landmark personal and business productivity tools including the first programmable spreadsheet (Lotus 1-2-3), a new kind of database optimized for entering small items of information in a free-form manner and adding organizational categories on-the-fly (Lotus Agenda), and a blindingly fast retrieval tool that indexed everything on the hard drive (On Location). Through his several decades of work as entrepreneur, CEO, angel investor, and venture capitalist, Mitch retained his passion for making useful software, and accumulated a major backlog of innovative ideas for new software products. But the development and adoption of innovative solutions in important areas of software has become quite difficult. One such area is that of desktop productivity applications, an area which encompasses a number of Mitch's most interesting ideas. Development costs are high, distribution channels are limited, and barriers to entry are significant. The chance is small that the traditional venture-capital-backed model of software development will fill this need.The right time for an alternative software development model
The Linux operating system has demonstrated that freely shared, collaboratively developed system software can gain critical mass and become a viable, even preferred, alternative to traditional proprietary software. The opportunity exists for the same thing to happen in the applications space, and OSAF was created to pursue this vision. Mitch found the idea of making something which would be freely shared and improved upon extremely compelling. The right product, developed in this way could have a chance to make a significant impact in the world. In the spring of 2001, Mitch initiated a limited experiment by hiring a consulting group to prototype a couple of the key ideas. The results were both exciting and encouraging, and so, in the summer of 2001, he took the plunge. He committed to open source and hired the first employee of a fledgling non-profit, the Open Source Applications Foundation, with the mission to create and gain wide adoption of open source application software of uncompromising quality. In February 2002, OSAF obtained Federal 501(c)3 nonprofit status.Why a non-profit?
Mitch, the successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist, had not all of a sudden ceased to believe in the virtues of capitalism. Rather, he wanted to make a clear statement: the intent of this effort was not to use this as a vehicle to make more money for himself. However, he would be very happy for others to make money and intended to find a licensing scheme which would permit both non-commercial and commercial development on the code base.Updated 'Today'
As of 2007, OSAF has a staff of 25 contributors and is working furiously towards the Preview Release.|
OSAF is a non-profit organization working on Chandler Project, a personal information manager designed for small group collaboration. Chandler consists of a Desktop application, a Server and the Chandler Hub Sharing Service. We are currently working towards our Preview Release. Learn more at chandlerproject.org. For a view into our daily work including detailed planning and Design and Deveoper Documentation, visit our Project Wiki. OSAF Mission
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See list of page contributors for attributions.
See list of page contributors for attributions.