Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 21:18:53 -0700 (PDT)

From:	Eugene Eric Kim
	eekim@eekim.com

Reply-To: ohs-dev@bootstrap.org

To:	ohs-dev@bootstrap.org

Subject:

No more meetings

Okay, folks, subject line says it all. We're going to stop having our Thursday meetings indefinitely, starting this Thursday.

We're doing this for a few reasons.

First, we're at the stage where we really need to resolve some architectural issues if we're going to be successful in this endeavour. At the same time, Doug wants to make sure that he understands some of the things that we're talking about, and that we understand some of the things that he's been talking about. We decided that Thursday meetings are not the optimal way to accomplish this, and have come up with an alternative, which I'll describe in a second.

Second, we want to emphasize discussion on this mailing list. A big problem that we've had is that we talk about a lot of things face-to-face in Menlo Park, and then don't sync that information properly with the people not able to attend those meetings physically. One of the goals of this project is to improve our ability to collaborate online, and so it's time to start putting our money where our mouth's are. That means, we should shift the discussion as much as possible to this list, for starters, and eventually to the OHS, when it's capable.

In the meantime, Doug is going to be contacting some people individually to set up some one-on-one sessions and possibly some small group meetings. Through these sessions, we hope to come to a common understanding regarding both short-term and long-term architectural issues. Throughout this whole process, we'll report the outcome of those meetings to this list for further discussion. Within a week or two, we hope to make enough progress to come up with an architecture and design spec once and for all, with Doug being the ultimate arbiter of good taste.

This is not meant to be an exclusionary process. As I said, results of these meetings should be reported to this list. Additionally, discussion should continue over this list. Also keep in mind that if Doug does not contact you individually, that does not mean we are not paying attention to your contributions over this list. We all follow this list, and if you're making important contributions, your voice will be heard.

Incidentally, this is very much like what happened with our licensing decision, although we hope to accomplish this in far less time. In the case of licensing, there was some initial discussion over the list, where people had an opportunity to contribute their thoughts and ideas. Then Doug had some one-on-one discussions with some individuals to help clarify his understanding of the various issues, and to communicate some of his own questions and qualms. Finally, a small group of us got together and came to consensus. I think it will work well again in this case as well.

This decision also means that this week's Augment demo is cancelled. However, we still want to do an Augment video, and the feedback I got from all of you was very helpful. I'm sure this will result in some discussion with Doug, either private or on this list, on how to best put this thing together.

If anyone has any questions or comments, let's hear them. And let's keep the discussion going on this list!

Sincerely,

-Eugene

Eugene Eric Kim
eekim@eekim.com
http://www.eekim.com/
"Writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they
can have an excuse to drink alcohol." --Steve Martin