RE: [www-vrml] Tim BL Is Baffled, Too

["Tony Parisi" <tparisi@mediamachines.com>]

At last, some constructive input.

Thanks, Brian. Well said.

Tony

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-www-vrml@web3d.org [mailto:owner-www-vrml@web3d.org] On Behalf
> Of Brian Hay
> Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2004 6:03 PM
> To: Neil TREVETT
> Cc: miriam@werple.net.au; www-vrml@web3d.org
> Subject: Re: [www-vrml] Tim BL Is Baffled, Too
> 
> Neil TREVETT wrote:
> 
> >  >> I wrote a wishlist of features I'd like to see in VRML many years
> > ago. Most of the list still stands -- only a few have been implemented
> > in current X3D.
> >
> > In the end - decisions get made by those that show up.  It pains me that
> > X3D is not getting the benefit of your insights and experience.
> 
> I feel there are two equally valid points here, which contribute to the
> sense of community disenfranchisement in some.
> 
> 1) As Neil implied, I don't feel we (non consortium members) have the
> right to complain after the fact if we don't make the effort to become
> DIRECTLY, ACTIVELY and REGULARLY involved in published consortium
> working group processes.
> 
> 2) As Miriam states however, long-standing community participants
> (consortium members or not) HAVE provided input and feedback through
> historically valid channels (www-vrml mailing list) only to have that
> input seemingly disregarded.
> 
>  From the core spec developers point of view it must be a nightmare to
> try to review and include all input from a mailing list.
> 
> But obviously there must be some well-defined process for development of
> such a comprehensive spec but that process needs to be open, transparent
> and inclusive.
> 
> Maybe all that's required is a clear and published process for community
> contibution that's advertised at every opportunity (e.g. web3d.org home
> page, all mailing list correspondence, regular reminders on different
> forums). People need to feel this is a community effort.
> 
> Part of the problem is that there's no one central place we can go to
> look in on debate, issues and contibute ideas and code. Efforts seem to
> be scattered over web3d.org, xj3d.org, yumatech, www-vrml and various
> x3d mailing lists. This doesn't make it easy for new community members.
> 
> Contrast this with many other open-source efforts. For example, the PHP
> Drupal CMS at http://www.drupal.org. Here you have WEB access to the CVS
> (concurrent versioning system) so you don't need to be a CVS dweeb to
> see what's going on. CVS also provides a history and rollback capability
> for developers. Also there's a web-based project issue tracker (trouble
> ticket system) where anyone can report bugs, suggest features, take on a
> development task etc and the rest of the community can provide comment.
> No code gets committed to Drupal until it has been reviewed.
> 
> Drupal is typical of many open-source efforts. There's no reason why
> such a system can't be used for an ISO specification also. The
> technology is free, robust and relatively easy to setup.
> 
> Such measures I feel would greatly enhance community participation,
> transparency and accountability, plus provide a "living history" of
> X3D's evolution for future community members. As it stands right now,
> newbies see this monumental spec but (apart from mailing list archives)
>   there's precious little information on how it came to be.
> 
> 
> --
> 
> Regards,
> Brian Hay.
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