[Squeakfoundation]About Squeak Foundation Clarification

[Dave Thomas]

While I appreciate Stephane's (and a few others) passion and frustration
his recent post may easily be taken out of context. So I would like to
provide some clarifying comments. 

1. For some time (XP2000, ECOOP 2000, OOPSLA 2000, Smalltalk Solutions
2001, EOOOP 2001...) and myself and others have advocated for a Squeak
Foundation (sometimes called SqF) in the spirit of Apache and other open
source efforts. Such foundations are non-profit companies run by a
meritocracy. Having a company provides a place where both individuals
and corporations can make contributions of money, code, people etc.
While Apache is rich relative to some consortium my expectation is that
SqF would have $30K -300K per year to support Squeak.

2. Dan and Alan have been very supportive for this idea from the outset,
indeed the much appreciated efforts of the StableSqueak team were a side
effect of these discussions at XP2000 etc. We made some initial progress
in the Spring 2001 following Smalltalk Solutions after some interest was
stirred by my provocative <grin> "Ask Not What Squeak Can Do For You,
But What You Can Do For Squeak" talk. This list was in fact initiated at
this time. Many to he consider having an outstanding head of the
meritocracy a critical success factor. In such discussions Dan has been
promoted as SqF's Linus <grin>. Dan agreed he would consider this role. 

3. Unfortunately soon after that the Squeak team (SqC) left from Disney
looking for a new organizational setting in which they could continue
with their important research. During that time Dan initiated in the
important work on Modules while concurrently working on the next release
of Squeak etc. There are only so many things Dan et al can do, and we
all want him doing those not wasting his valuable time on administriva. 

4. In August in response to the availability of some very talented
Smalltalk resources due to the economy I approached AITO, which is the
non-profit company that runs ECOOP with a request to host an account for
SqF contributions. AITO held a special vote and very quickly approved
agreed to host the account and to dispense the funds on the basis of
recommendations of a committee consisting of a Dan, Stephan
(representing ESUG) and some AITO board members (where there are many
Squeak supporters including myself). Dan and I talked briefly at OOPSLA
2001 in October and apologized for not getting back to me to confirm his
participation. 

Summary

Neither an SqF mailing list, nor an SqF bank account will make a
foundation. SqF needs people who have skills, time, $ to contribute as
well as leadership which shares the values of Squeak and has the
respect, trust of the Squeak community. One needs to start with great
dreams but modest expectations and build on success. It won't become Red
Hat, Apache... nor Squeak Park <grin> a research center employing 50+
Squeakers over night and many would argue that either achievement would
be a failure in another dimension. If SqF were only able to support
students and sabbaticals for professional developers it would still be
an important contribution. 

Further the essence of a successful non-profit foundation is that people
contribute to the cause and have no specific expectations. While the
analog to Apache is useful, SqF needs to provide sufficient flexibility
to "let the flowers" bloom. For those concerned with building on Squeak
as an industrial platform it makes perfect sense to have a project
AlwaysBehindReliableStableSqueak <grin> and for those building on Squeak
as a laboratory or playground for ideas it makes sense to have a project
AlwaysAheadUnstableSqueak <grin> with all shades in between including
Squeak x.y for SqF.

End of Year Special Offer (Stephane you got to me <grin>)

Many people ask me how is SqF going, assuming that since I talked about
it a couple of talks that I'm the driver. I'm NOT; I'm just a 
cheerleader and an grateful Smalltalker who has offered to help make the
admisistriva happen iff Squeakers want SqF. So in order to bring closure
on my effort I make the following offer. Good for 30 days, no refunds
etc.  Iff I receive sufficient personal requests from a representative
population of Squeak contributors, and offers of assistance I will
consider this a mandate to incorporate non profit SqF, organize an
interim board etc. After which I will resign to download the fruits of
there labor <grin>. 

Best Wishes For the Holiday Season and 2002
Dave

Dave Thomas
Bedarra Corp (Canada and Anguilla)
Carleton University Canada
University of Queensland Australia

DISCLAIMER - The above remarks represent my personal perspective and are
provided in the sincere hope that the Squeak will continue to thrive and
be healthy. While I have been guilty in part for many "sins" <grin>
including ENVY/Developer, ENVY/Smalltalk Embedded. ENVY/Packager, ANSI
ST, ST/Vmac, and IBM VisualAge Smalltalk, Java and MicroEdition my
interest in Squeak are deeply personal and non commercial. Squeak is a
valuable intellectual asset that needs to be protected and made
available for future generations Squeakers. While I'm very sympathetic
to those who want a production Squeak I personally am much more
interested in seeing innovation. Of course I would love to be see all
things happen but having lived in both research and commercial worlds I
understand the tradeoffs.