Switching Gears

First a personal note: I decided to leave Wind River after 7+ years. It was not an easy decision, especially since it means to leave a work environment with very smart people, and to leave the birthplace of TWiki.

I am taking some time off to work on the WikisInTheWorkplaceBook. We are making good progress with interviews, but are still looking for more case studies of StructuredWiki deployments with TWikiApplications. I will post an update soon.

Later I will try to make a living of what I love to do, e.g. something with TWiki. At this time I do not know in what form, but one thing is clear: TWiki.org is to remain a place to nurture free software. There is a lot of momentum on Wikis at the workplace now. At LinuxWorld I have seen that MediaWiki is the Wiki of choice for public web sites, and TWiki the one for behind firewall. The press does not make this distinction, they are driven by PR departments, e.g. commercial offerings have more weight.

What does this personal change mean for the TWikiCommunity? I expect it to be positive, I intend to get gradually more involved with strategic matters, architecture and TWikiAdvocacy. This focus is possible since we have a well established developer community, although I'd personally also like to code more. (Note on the side, I currently cannot use the two servers I have access to for DEVELOP work , but that should be resolved soon).

My biggest priorities at this time are as follows:

• Solve the WhereAreDocsMasters question
• Get a closure on the TWikiLogoDevelopment
• Help bring DakarRelease out of the virtual door, with the quality (spec, code and documentation) our customers expect, and in line with the TWikiMission
• Rethink the taxonomy of the Plugins web in order to build a market place for the TWiki extensions (PluginsNeedCategorizing is a good start)
• As part of TWikiAdvocacy, promote TWiki as the leader of StructuredWikis
• Move TWiki up on the scale of OpenSourceSoftwareMaturity

I believe that aligning further TWiki development with customer focus and the TWikiMission in mind is crucial to the success of TWiki. DakarRelease under the leadership of CrawfordCurrie has many great improvements that will help keep TWiki lead the pack. The competition is not standing still though, Xwiki is getting very feature rich, and JotSpot is entering the market with an appliance. We have loyalty from the regular TWiki contributors, but as I have seen from the interviews we cannot expect loyalty from our large customer base. My primary concern is that if we make incompatible changes to the Plugin API and the rendering engine we will give customers an incentive to switch to a different Wiki. We are making good progress in automating the installation and upgrade of TWiki, which solves one key issue of TWiki adoption. However, automated upgrade is irrelevant if mission critical applications and Plugins developed inhouse break when upgrading TWiki. I have seen several changes to the Plugin API and the rendering engine where I see a potential issue, and I going to raise a red flag one by one. I sincerely hope to get the support from the community to get us aligned with the TWikiMission (especially on KISS and on protecting corporate investment). I would like to solve this as a team by resolving and/or clarifying RaisedRedFlags. If you need my attention raise your concern in PeterPleaseComment.

As for the developers, we should continue building an environment that fosters innovation. Innovation is cool and keeps everyone happy   Think big!

-- PeterThoeny - 30 Aug 2005

good luck in your new ventures, peter. to me, your priorities list sounds right on target!

-- WillNorris - 30 Aug 2005

Thanks Will. I am also open to other priorities, your feedback is appreciated.

For example, I am toying with the idea of a TWikiConsortium.

-- PeterThoeny - 31 Aug 2005

Update on priorities after 40 days. Some progress have been done, but not nearly as much as I'd like to. Even by working for several hours a day during the last few weeks on the open source TWiki. A lot of time went bust handling the recent urgent TWikiSecurityAlerts (I asked for help but most of it fell back on me). I hope you understand and forgive the relatively slow progress.

1. Solve the WhereAreDocsMasters question
   • Work in progress; follow-up in DakarDocumentationModelIsBroken and several Bugs topics
2. Get a closure on the TWikiLogoDevelopment
   • Done, result in TWikiLogos
3. Help bring DakarRelease out of the virtual door, with the quality (spec, code and documentation) our customers expect, and in line with the TWikiMission
   • Work in progress; follow-up in several Bugs topics
4. Rethink the taxonomy of the Plugins web in order to build a market place for the TWiki extensions (PluginsNeedCategorizing is a good start)
   • Not yet started due to other urgent things
5. As part of TWikiAdvocacy, promote TWiki as the leader of StructuredWikis
   • Not yet started due to other urgent things
6. Move TWiki up on the scale of OpenSourceSoftwareMaturity
   • Not yet started due to other urgent things

-- PeterThoeny - 10 Oct 2005

Regarding items 5 and 6, we need to get a clear idea about the USPs of TWiki. What is TWiki good at and what is the best way to promote this?

The last year or so we've seen open source professionalize their communication and design. TWiki's a bit left behind. See CategoryBranding topics.

-- ArthurClemens - 10 Oct 2005