Re: Future of JEDI? -OR- Where are all the leaders gone?

Hello everyone,

> http://homepages.borland.com/jedi
> *
> *"*This homepage is an alpha version right now."* And that since the end
> of 2003 (if I remember correctly)
Isn't it a shame, somehow?
I mean wasn't JEDI the project from which Borland incorporated code into
Delphi and all this?

> Does this really work with OpenSource projects? You assign a task to
> someone, this person starts working on it and stop because he has not
> the time for it anymore. So the task will not be closed.
My belief of course, yes it works. But just because someone stops working on
a certain thing doesn't mean his efforts are lost. Just delegate the task to
someone else or pick it yourself.

> And when other
> tasks depend on this stopped task the whole project cannot operate until
> the task is assigned to someone else who must investigate some/lots of
> time to get used to the stopped task. (that is only my optinion which
> meight differ from other's).
This is of course true, but that's why people volunteer.

> I don't think that info is current. Obviously most JEDI projects seem to
> be inactive for years. We are just to few active developers for all the
> JEDI projects.
Seems like, but wouldn't "Project JEDI" deserve a better end (if it deserves
an end at all), if everyone silently chose to quit it? I can only speak for
myself, but even being "team captain" in one team was not enough for me to
get to know the *new* website. There's - at least I've not found it - no
"place" (mailinglist, bulletin board) where the people meet and stay
connected *actively* which can be found without someone who is already
involved. Is there? Was it only that *I* have not found it?

> first:  I think this should have been discussed in the jedi.general
> newsgroup.  I don't think the mailing lists have much visibility nowadays.
I personally dislike newgroups, but tell me where to find it and I will be
glad to join the discussion there.

> I am not sure JDARTH is worth to be developed further.  From what I have
> seen, FPC's h2pas tool seems more promising.
Doesn't really matter if I understood Alan correctly. He wanted to create a
bigger project where all developer tools will be joined in a bigger project.

> The operative word here is "volunteers" (for unpaid work!).  Those
> usually are picky about what they want to do.  If there are only few
> (that's fact for most JEDI projects), unpopular tasks simply aren't
> likely to be taken.
But IMO that's mostly because there is no "appreciation" from anyone else.
Actually I think developing JDARTH is not really popular - I take the low to
none traffic on the Yahoogroup as an argument for it - but still it could
have become very popular once it was published and working. No idea whether
it was the problem that it existed "only" as the successor of Headconv or
something else. Also a faster release cycle might have made the difference.
If I do something voluntarily I am not usually doing it because of pure
altruism, either I want to become famous or I expect gratitude from someone.
Believe me, even a guestbook on the project sites (or the main site after it
comes back to life) could make a difference here. The "normal" devs will
feel that someone appreciates their work. And yes, I believe it could even
motivate new JEDIs to join and others to do the "unpopular tasks".

> "Should", yes.  Reality is different:  Typically the team leader is the
> one that feels responsible and thus ends up doing the unpopular jobs.
Yes indeed. I also feel responsible for jedi-apilib, especially because I
like the idea to automate the task of converting the whole PSDK headers (or
even only 99.9%). But first of all you may underestimate the potential of
the devs and second it may happen that they will not like being in the a
project where only one person does the tasks because he believes otheres are
not capable of finishing them.

> Personally I believe that the most effective improvement  to the JEDI
> development process would be the use of a Wiki to develop and document
> ideas and concepts.
Definitely. I'd even jump in to help anyone responsible for it to set it up.
My proposal is using MediaWiki. It also allows for foreign content - see
below.

> Mailing lists/newsgroups are not really fit for that, because they don't
> provide means to help in condensing, elaborating and linking ideas.
> Furthermore, anything posted to groups will ultimately drop below the
> time horizon of reader attention.
Yap.

Another suggestion I have to make is this one: Create local "embassies" of
the Project JEDI.
Not everyone is capable or only willing to communicate in a foreign
language, so why not give them a chance to join the project. I can only
speak for the communities where I've been involved, but the CIS (former
Soviet Union) states have a huge potential. However, most do not speak other
than the local languages. Germany has a big community too - some of you know
this, as I know some of you from there. It also seems that the Benelux
states have a certain potential. Often when I search for something I find it
on some website written in Flamish (although I understand it only partially
;).
So creating different communities and joining it under one big project would
be a great thing. Also growing activity could give us the chance to raise
some money and spend it for the website and so on, so it would be pure
synergy once it get's running ;) (okay, a very optimistic view :-)

Actually my dream would be some kind of delphipedia (compared to wikipedia)
which could collect all the knowledge in several languages and form a
community again. It doesn't mean that the old Project JEDI itself dies,
however. Instead it means that it's being reembraced through something which
was _initiated by_ Project JEDI.

A schedule could look like this:
- Gather *all* team captains *and* members
- Renovate the *new* website, take over contents from the old where
appropriate
- Make the new website XHTML compliant ... ;-)
- Remove the old website
- Get the FPC people aboard
- Create the Wiki, either as part of the website or separately
- Do all this until the end of this year (2005)!
- Get Borland aboard

May the source be with you ;) ...

Oliver

PS: When I met with three other Delphians in Berlin 2 months ago we spoke
about the "Delphi Spirit Award" which was granted to Robert (M.) - one of
those three - in 2001 or so. And whether it still existed. Seems it does
not. This is also something which could be reembraced. It's a nice
tradition. And even though this may not be done in "real life" it would be
nice to get Borland to create a "hall of fame" where all those people are
listed by year and with their website linked or something similar. As the
one who got the award you are allowed to put a certain image with link on
your website or something - similar to the shareware/freeware awards. It's
not too much effort but it would show the volunteers they are being
appreciated.
Furthermore we discussed whether Borland violated the MPL in Delphi 5,
because the mentioning of the JEDIs was only visible in some easteregg
dialog ;-)

-- 
---------------------------------------------------
May the source be with you, stranger ;)

ICQ: #281645
URL: http://assarbad.net


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