I'll add my $0.02 on this topic as well:

I agree that Squeak has suffered from a lack of leadership since SqC moved 
on to other things.  When I first read Goran's message, my gut reaction 
was "Good, maybe Squeak will get some direction again."

My only concern is that Goran, Cees, Doug, Marcus, and Michael do all have 
"day jobs", as Goran mentioned, and they're taking on a big 
responsibility.  I think that part of the reason things worked so well in 
the days of SqC is because there was a group of people guiding the path of 
Squeak development and Squeak **was** their "day job".  It wasn't just 
something to work on in their spare time.  I think a large part of 
Squeak's success is atrributable to this fact.

If any group of people can actually afford devote the time that Squeak 
requires and deserves, I wholeheartedly support their effort.  These five 
people are more than adequately qualified, in my opinion.

It seems to be widely agreed upon that a lot of problems in Squeak land 
are because "nobody" is spending time doing the work.  I also agree, but I 
disagree with those that argued "money won't help".  I think that if 
Squeak isn't anybody's day job, it will continue to suffer many of the 
problems that have been discussed on squeak-dev.  I'm not complaining. 
This is just an observation and opinion.  I think it would be a good thing 
if there were qulified people who want to make Squeak their day job and a 
sponsor or sponsors to fund it.  If an artist can find US$20 million to 
hang curtains in New York's Central Park for 16 days, surely there must be 
funding available somewhere to sponsor Squeak?

I wish I could spend some time doing the work, but since my former group 
at work was layed off, and I was luckily offered a position in another 
group (at another location, in another country) in 2001, I haven't been 
able to spend much time with Squeak at all.  For many reason's, my day job 
has been taking 12 to 14 hours per day of my time for that last few years, 
and that makes it difficult to make any time for Squeak.  Squeak is 
important to me, but I have a family to support, so the paying job gets 
the priority.  I think this is the same for most of us.

I'm sorry that some think this leadership intiative is a "power grab", but 
Squeak is clearly suffering from a lack of vision and direction and maybe 
these guys can help with that.  I say "Give them a chance".

For any large project to succeed there needs to be a clear common goal 
understood by everyone participating.  The project will still fail unless 
there is substantial "buy-in" from the group, so I think the 
'mysterious_island' group have a difficult hill to climb before them. They 
stand a chance if we give them our support.  They will fail if we don't.

So, Guys, for what it's worth, you have my support.

                -Dean Swan
                Senior DSP Engineer
                Mitel Networks
                Ottawa, Ontario - Canada

P.S. I am making no representations on behalf of my employer here, so hold 
them harmless.
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