Yesterday’s post was definitely a mistake, and therefore the text has been replaced with a fake one (lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, et caetera) to avoid the cache trap.
Today I’ve had a long conversation with Pierpaolo Boccadamo, Microsoft Italy Platform Strategy Director. He is a real gentleman and has been very kind to me, although he was involved in a very important server announcement and my words have been quite a problem for him, Sam Ramji and Andrea Valboni (the people I’m in touch with at Microsoft). I apologize, guys, seriously.
I’ve been told that this blog is now seen by Microsoft as an authoritative voice of the open source community. I’m happy and surprised at the same time: I’ve never been a corporate person, and I’m not the best one for the role but I will try to stick to it at least until we will get to know each other in a better way.
Please do understand, though, that the open source community isn’t and can’t be similar to a large enterprise. Therefore, the language will always be different in tone from what you could expect if we were a “regular” company.
But there are advantages, too. You have my mobile phone number, and you are not just asked by warmly invited to call me whenever you feel that I’ve made something wrong. I don’t have any problem today and I won’t have any problem in the future to acknowledge my mistakes (if any, of course).
I’m a volunteer, and I use my free time for the the community. I don’t have a status to defend, and if I lose my “job” I will have more time for myself, my family and my hobbies. It’s a different perspective from yours, as you are in a corporate position.
Of course, this doesn’t translate into a lousy attitude. I try to do my best, as I have been doing for all my professional life: you know the results, and therefore you may understand how seriously I handle the task.
Let’s start working at the interoperability project and forget - for the time being - the other issues (although I know that we will be carefully watching each other on a daily basis). You have my commitment, and the commitment of Associazione PLIO.
Last posts on the same subject.
Comments
I believe you’re right Italo, an open source community is not a corporation. Furthermore PLIO is not an open source community, while it has a lot to do with our beloved OpenOffice.org community.
PLIO is a non-profit voluntary association (ONLUS) with its own structure and rules. PLIO is funded by donations, has an Association Council and it is represented by its President, formerly the Italian Lang OOo Project maintainer, Davide Dozza.
I believe we did a good job opening up the opportunity for PLIO to start a dialog on interoperability with Microsoft and possibly many other vendors (including Sun, Novell, IBM and Red Flag just to mention a few). At the same I think it is great time to step behind the scenes from now on, it is up to the association to eventually elaborate it further.
Individually we might be just pigs toiling in the mud of uncertainty, but all together we are no less than a miracle! 
