[Ldsoss] Let me formally introduce myself...

Mon Jun 12 10:52:03 EDT 2006

Actually, I think the church already is in the process of
Open-Sourcing PAF - I interviewed for a position working on this team:

http://ldschurch.recruitsoft.com/servlets/CareerSection?art_ip_action=FlowDispatcher&flowTypeNo=13&pageSeq=2&reqNo=15700&art_servlet_language=en&csNo=2

Jesse

On 6/12/06, Charles Fry <ldsoss at frogcircus.org> wrote:
> As previously mentioned on this list, I think that PAF would be an
> excelent piece of software for the Church to open source. It is
> something that almost everyone needs and that many people use. In my
> experience most volunteer software development is done by people working
> on software that they use and care about. That is where much of the
> motivation comes from. This would make PAF a prime candidate for open
> source development.
>
> Charles
>
> -----Original Message-----
> > From: Tom Welch <welchtc at ldschurch.org>
> > Subject: [Ldsoss] Let me formally introduce myself...
> > Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:26:52 -0600
> > To: LDS Open Source Software <ldsoss at lists.ldsoss.org>
> > Reply-To: LDS Open Source Software <ldsoss at lists.ldsoss.org>
> >
> > My name is Tom Welch.  I was recently recruited by the  Church to define
> > an "open source" strategy for the Church.  What does this mean?  Well,
> > for years the Church has been a heavy user of open source technology.
> > Many of the back-end systems are all based upon open source software.
> > In fact, the Church has contributed to certain open source projects with
> > improvements that it has made.  Because of sensitivity issues, the
> > Church has asked the individual developers to submit changes upstream in
> > the developers name instead of the Church's name.  My role, however, is
> > not to get the Church to use more open source software but is to figure
> > out how we can leverage the OSS community to help build applications
> > that the Church does not have the resources to do.
> >
> > *A little bit about me:*
> >
> > I am the former chief technology officer of Linspire, Inc
> > <http://www.linspire.com>. (formally known as Lindows).  I resigned my
> > post at Linspire to work on this project as I can see the huge benefit
> > that enlisting the LDS development community can provide to the Church
> > and to Church members.  I was with Linspire from the very beginning and
> > have watched that company grow and become a success and am still
> > involved with the leadership board of Freespire.org
> > <http://www.freespire.org> (a completely free version of Linspire that
> > will be available this summer).  I am also the author of the original
> > scriptures reader that ran on the Palm and CE devices (EZ Reader).  I
> > also wrote the original Franklin Day Planner software (Ascend) that was
> > sold by Franklin Covey for years.  I've been around the "block" for many
> > years and have seen the rise and success of open source software and I
> > am very enthusiastic to be a part of it.
> >
> > As you think of the Church and the work that they do from a technology
> > front, most of the work is done to benefit the Church as a whole.  By
> > this I mean that the Church spends almost all of their technology
> > resources in building programs that run the Church (membership records,
> > financial, assets, missionary, family history, temple, etc).  Very
> > little "technology" money is spent benefiting individual members.  That
> > is why there are no "Duty to God" tracking software, scouting software,
> > family preparedness software, ward mission software, etc.  There are a
> > lot of members that have written programs to help them in their Church
> > callings but the Church has never really looked at or authorized any of
> > these for use by the Church membership as a whole.
> >
> > My job is to try and change all of this by enlisting the LDS development
> > community.  So my first job is to try and build an infrastructure to
> > allow us all to communicate and collaborate on projects.  This mailing
> > list (and the ldssoss.org website) is a good starting point but my
> > vision is to take it so much further.  In the coming weeks I will share
> > much more of our plans.  Please be patient because I have a lot to do to
> > work within the parameters at the Church.
> >
> > *One point of caution, however:*
> >
> > One of the biggest concerns the Church has with endorsing or sponsoring
> > a LDS Developers site is that the content on the site could get out of
> > control.  Flame wars, rude behavior, religious debate, or other
> > non-Christlike behavior will not be tolerated by the Church and will get
> > any such endorsed site "unendorsed".  So it is up to us to show everyone
> > and prove that we can work as a community to build great software that
> > will benefit users and do all of this in a cooperative and Christlike
> > way.  WE need to self moderate.
> >
> > Please feel free to contact me individually or through this list with
> > ideas, questions, concerns, etc.  I'd love to hear all of your thoughts.
> >
> > Tom
> > --
> > Tom Welch
> > welchtc at ldschurch.org
> > (801) 240-1609
> > (858) 829-4614 - Cell
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
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> >
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>
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>
>
> --
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> The jap
> With
> Iron
> Scrap
> Burma-Shave
> http://burma-shave.org/jingles/1943/slap
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