[kde-community] finding a clear vision for KDE - second draft for discussion

[Ingo Klöcker]

On Tuesday 16 February 2016 23:26:58 Alexander Neundorf wrote:
> On Monday, February 15, 2016 22:27:14 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> > On Montag, 15. Februar 2016 21:49:58 CET Alexander Neundorf wrote:
> > > On Monday, February 15, 2016 18:36:18 Lydia Pintscher wrote:
> > > > Hi everyone,
> > > > 
> > > > A bit less than two weeks ago we sent the first draft for the
> > > > community vision for KDE. We have gotten a lot of useful
> > > > feedback and
> > > > have now put this into a second draft. It reads as follows:
> > > > "KDE creates technology for a world in which everyone has
> > > > freedom,
> > > > privacy and control over their digital life."
> > > 
> > > just to make sure: this intentionally uses "technology" and not
> > > "software" ?
> > 
> > Yes, this is intentional. Since the vision is supposed to merely
> > outline the future we want to live in, not how to get there, we did
> > not want to restrict ourselves to software.
> 
> On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 19:53:47 Riccardo Iaconelli wrote:
> ...
> 
> > We explicitly re-labeled it "technology" to include icons,
> > wallpapers and other kind of content which might not be software.
> 
> Is this maybe the reason why we are having those weird discussions,
> and we actually have the same in mind ?
> 
> See, here is what the word "technology", used in this context, tells
> me: a community, which is well known as a *software* community, now
> doesn't use the term "software" anymore. Instead it now uses
> "technology".
> There must be a reason why they decided not to use "software" anymore.
> To me this means, this community decided not to emphasize that it
> does software anymore. So it probably also does hardware now,
> probably having stuff like Arduino, maybe RPi-based hardware and the
> maker-community in mind, maybe more. I would also expect then a plan
> for hardware in the mission then.
>
> What I want to say, in my opinion a guiding statement like a vision
> should emphasize the main strengths, the main direction, and doesn't
> need to be worded as broad so that it really covers every nuance.

The vision is not a guiding statement, the mission is. It's the mission 
which details/specifies how we intend to fulfill the vision. IOW, the 
mission statement gives the direction you are seeking for. The mission 
statement would probably state that we will write software with focus on 
UI applications to reach this goal.


> On Monday, February 15, 2016 22:27:14 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> > If, say, 10 years down the road, hard- and software is so much
> > intertwined that we cannot influence the future with software alone
> > anymore, we don't want people to say "But our vision says we only
> > do software!".
>
> Since we are talking about technology, especially a fast evolving
> technology, I'm sure a vision for a technology project could also be
> updated. :-)

Yes, but if we can avoid it (by using a broader vision in the first 
place), then we should avoid it. OTOH, the mission is supposed to be 
updated, e.g. if the world around us changes in a way which makes it 
unwise not to start creating hardware to fulfill our vision.


Regards,
Ingo
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 181 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
URL: <http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/attachments/20160217/f265dd6a/attachment.sig>