[steering-discuss] Re: User Groups in each country approved LibreOffice

Hi Guys

Sorry to insist on this thread, but I think it is very important to the community in general LibreOffice

The intention is to have your support for the creation of user groups in each country the intention is as follows.

- Promote the use of local activities LibreOffice (Flisol, Installfest, exhibitions, lectures, conferences, and events)
- To promote good relations within the user group LibreOffice locally in order to know the views of users and take appropriate action
-To provide software distribution services to raise funds to further promote local activities, print marketing materials, purchase DVDs, getting donations to TDF
"Attracting people to collaborate directly with projects that are above local user groups, in the case of Spanish America, the Spanish project.
"Having a local organ representing the sponsorship requests to the companies, and local governments.
"Any other activity that failure to perform or promote locally.
"Having a logo located to identify groups of users located in each country. in the case of Venezuela have proposed the following.

As you can see are mainly marketing activities, this is not intended to hijack the community as we have seen in other cases. But it aims to create a new channel for people to come more easily to the project LibreOffice of each region, be it that of Europe, America, Asia, Africa, Middle East, or Hispanic.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22620135/Logotipo% 20Comunidad% 20LIbO% 20Venezuela_v2.png

I must say that I am not a graphic designer and the logos that I created just aim to provide an idea of what I have in my head. Obviously we will have to adjust to the guidelines of the mark or perform some other template that is approved by all involved. or at least mostly.

I also think that the best way to integrate the Hispanic community in our case

-Use the local user groups in each country to attract people to government projects as "The Hispanic Community LibreOffice"
-Centralize the efforts and resources around TDF through local user groups.
-Use existing resources supported by TDF such as mailing lists, irc channel, forums, wiki, among others.
"The local user groups must not use existing resources and approved by TDF

PS: I know no other person particularly in Venezuela that LibreOffice collaborating on the project, this can occur for many reasons.

1 .- Do not know how to collaborate in the project LibreOffice.
2 .- Do not want to collaborate.
3 .- Do not know about LibreOffice.
4 .- many others.

Is that local user groups in each country can be a great benefit to the community Global LibreOffice

I also know that they are too busy to Menejador these things at the moment but just as we are a community and we help each other, we should be able to push these initiatives without much trouble but if it will benefit the entire community. I do not intend to take care of everything but to have at least one positive response to serve as encouragement to carry out this work.

I hope they give me their opinions to make progress on this issue.

Greetings.

Hi Daniel, SC members,

I just want to show you what already has been discussed on this topic.
See two links below...

Daniel Gonzalez schrieb:

Hi all

I wonder if there are any process to validate a LUG or TDF Group
LibreOffice users in a given country.

Venezuela is being born in a group of users after Flisol LibreOffice
Caracas and one of the questions that we asked is whether the stand we
had and the group that was building had approval by TDF. So far there
hispanic community encompassing all Spanish-speaking countries but I
think it is necessary to jump to something more localized due to local
activities that may be generated in each country.

Saying?

Greetings

Hi Guys

Sorry to insist on this thread, but I think it is very important to the
community in general LibreOffice

The intention is to have your support for the creation of user groups in
each country the intention is as follows.[...]

I hope they give me their opinions to make progress on this issue.

Greetings.

There are two threads about creating an official logo for a local team in Venezuela on the design@LibO list:

Here are the starting mails of these threads:
<http://go.mail-archive.com/_Cr8tEWfxl-nFFMByPoYBLpTwGQ=>
<http://go.mail-archive.com/_kfDTmWMFBOVLNA5vrH5G907DzI=>

I tried to describe the difference between local marketing teams and general language based teams for user support and all the other activities in my replies to these threads.

Drew is working on a similar topic for the North American team (he just mentioned this in his last mail in the second thread from above).

I hope these links give a bit more background information without taking too much time for you!

Best regards

Bernhard

Hi Daniel, Bernhard, all,

Hi Daniel, SC members,

I just want to show you what already has been discussed on this topic.
See two links below...

Daniel Gonzalez schrieb:

Hi all

I wonder if there are any process to validate a LUG or TDF Group
LibreOffice users in a given country.

Venezuela is being born in a group of users after Flisol LibreOffice
Caracas and one of the questions that we asked is whether the stand we
had and the group that was building had approval by TDF. So far there
hispanic community encompassing all Spanish-speaking countries but I
think it is necessary to jump to something more localized due to local
activities that may be generated in each country.

Saying?

Greetings

Hi Guys

Sorry to insist on this thread, but I think it is very important to the
community in general LibreOffice

The intention is to have your support for the creation of user groups in
each country the intention is as follows.[...]

I hope they give me their opinions to make progress on this issue.

Greetings.

There are two threads about creating an official logo for a local team in Venezuela on the design@LibO list:

Here are the starting mails of these threads:
<http://go.mail-archive.com/_Cr8tEWfxl-nFFMByPoYBLpTwGQ=>
<http://go.mail-archive.com/_kfDTmWMFBOVLNA5vrH5G907DzI=>

I tried to describe the difference between local marketing teams and general language based teams for user support and all the other activities in my replies to these threads.

Drew is working on a similar topic for the North American team (he just mentioned this in his last mail in the second thread from above).

I hope these links give a bit more background information without taking too much time for you!

Sorry for the late reply, and thanks a lot for the links and the details you both provide on this. I already gave my opinion on this topic to Daniel and Daniel, so they know that I'm all for their action.
I'm the one battling the most I think for the language groups to be the only official representation in the project, but I completely understand the needs for local marketing and support. So of course, I support the creation of the material you're designing and also really appreciate your work on this.
As I tell you, there is already various associations existing in different countries that support local actions, more or less officially representing LibreOffice. I would like that we have a more clear and defined affiliation and support between these associations and the TDF, but I didn't get the time to think enough about it yet.
In any way, if you want to set such associations in Venezuela or Argentina, I don't see any issue.

Kind regards
Sophie
speaking as a Steering Committee member here

> Hi all
>
> I wonder if there are any process to validate a LUG or TDF Group
> LibreOffice users in a given country.
>
> Venezuela is being born in a group of users after Flisol LibreOffice
> Caracas and one of the questions that we asked is whether the stand we
> had and the group that was building had approval by TDF. So far there
> hispanic community encompassing all Spanish-speaking countries but I
> think it is necessary to jump to something more localized due to local
> activities that may be generated in each country.
>
> Saying?
>
> Greetings
>
Hi Guys

Sorry to insist on this thread, but I think it is very important to the
community in general LibreOffice

Hi All,

I believe that is correct.

<snip>

I also think that the best way to integrate the Hispanic community in
our case

-Use the local user groups in each country to attract people to
government projects as "The Hispanic Community LibreOffice"
-Centralize the efforts and resources around TDF through local user groups.
-Use existing resources supported by TDF such as mailing lists, irc
channel, forums, wiki, among others.
"The local user groups must not use existing resources and approved by TDF

PS: I know no other person particularly in Venezuela that LibreOffice
collaborating on the project, this can occur for many reasons.

1 .- Do not know how to collaborate in the project LibreOffice.
2 .- Do not want to collaborate.
3 .- Do not know about LibreOffice.
4 .- many others.

Is that local user groups in each country can be a great benefit to the
community Global LibreOffice

My offering here would be to not emphasis the national aspect so much,
which is to say that a group could be at a national level in some
places, however I can see places where could be multiple groups active
within a nation, or a group that encompassed more then one national
boundary.

The key is the people - you say that there is no other person in
Venezuela active promoting/support LibO/TDF - but I'm not sure declaring
a Venezuela User Group is the only option, perhaps you would be best
served by focusing on an even smaller region, your city or province
(state, not sure the term there). I can't, nor can anyone, really answer
that question directly for you.

My opinion is that a team, or a group, to be call itself such requires
more then one person. So one person can say - Hey I want to start a
team/local group, and start trying to recruit other like minded
individuals to join in with you. If the idea as merit there will be
others found, but on a pragmatic note you have to assume you, the person
trying to organize the team, is going to be doing most everything your
self at first.

anyway - I only wanted to comment on that one point - this idea of local
teams being national based, looking at a broad policy I would not
necessarily, or at all, use that as a basis, I think some places that
would happen.

@Daniel, I'll back up and comment on some of your other points in
further emails.

Thanks

Drew

<snip>

I already gave my opinion on this topic to
Daniel and Daniel, so they know that I'm all for their action.
I'm the one battling the most I think for the language groups to be the
only official representation in the project,

Hi Sophie, others

Alright - this is the part I find difficult to reconcile "only official
representation". Naturally there are certain functions here, such as
translations where the language based association of individuals should
make a team and that team should have responsibility for that function.

However, once you step past translation work I do see the clear line
that says this group has official responsibilities with other functions
performed.

Could you expand on that for me, what you mean by 'only official
representation' - it would help me understand.

but I completely understand
the needs for local marketing and support. So of course, I support the
creation of the material you're designing and also really appreciate
your work on this.
As I tell you, there is already various associations existing in
different countries that support local actions, more or less officially
representing LibreOffice. I would like that we have a more clear and
defined affiliation and support between these associations and the TDF,
but I didn't get the time to think enough about it yet.
In any way, if you want to set such associations in Venezuela or
Argentina, I don't see any issue.

If I follow what you are saying - if you create a legal entity of some
kind, outside of TDF, and then want to work with us that is OK - that is
a fairly high bar to set, IMO.

Thanks

Drew

<snip>

> I already gave my opinion on this topic to
> Daniel and Daniel, so they know that I'm all for their action.
> I'm the one battling the most I think for the language groups to be the
> only official representation in the project,

Hi Sophie, others

Alright - this is the part I find difficult to reconcile "only official
representation". Naturally there are certain functions here, such as
translations where the language based association of individuals should
make a team and that team should have responsibility for that function.

sorry - poor typing

However, once you step past translation work I do not see the clear line
that says this group has official responsibilities with other functions
performed.

Hi Bernhard,

The only thing I'd add for this particular email, is that I would not
worry about taking up anyone's time on this, IMO, this is a rather
important discussion for us to have and important decisions to come from
it - so it should take some of our time, and shouldn't necessarily be
rushed. (nor should it be left un-addressed either)

So, Thanks for getting to this email,

Drew

I resend my mail with a reply to all, I haven't seen that there is other lists in copy, sorry for the double posting on the US list.

Hi Drew,
[...]

Hi Sophie, others

Alright - this is the part I find difficult to reconcile "only official
representation". Naturally there are certain functions here, such as
translations where the language based association of individuals should
make a team and that team should have responsibility for that function.

sorry - poor typing

However, once you step past translation work I do not see the clear line
that says this group has official responsibilities with other functions
performed.

The primary goal of our project, in my eyes, is to offer an office suite in the language of the user. To achieve that, you need to put the language at the first place and whatever the history, the politics or the countries where this language exists, try to exists or has existed. An example can be Macedonian [1], but there are others even more touchy.

So to evacuate this issue that is far from the goal of the project, languages are officially represented, not countries. This doesn't hinder the creation of local associations and representations [if it doesn't constrain the members of the language team to enter into political wars, of course, we won't support/endorse political actions in this way too].
This is the reason why also we don't use flags to represent the languages on our sites, wikis, etc.

I hope you understand better my position, but don't hesitate if it's not clear.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_naming_dispute

Kind regards
Sophie