[advocacy-discuss] Any responses to this Infoworld Article ?

[Jim Grisanzio]

Harry Foxwell wrote:
>> Simon,
>>
>> As the Sun Open Source Ombudsman, and the (approximate) organizational
>> counterpart to Zemlin, I think that you should pen a rebuttal and have
>> it published in the NY Times, Infoworld etc.  ...
>>  we should, as a community, not be shy about exerting ourselves
>> in the technical world and let it be known that we won't put up with
>> this type of cheap, shoddy and inaccurate drivel from idiots like
>> Zemlin.  To let this "article" (I use the term very loosely) go
>> unanswered would simply open the door to more abuse from
>> Zemlin-copycats.
>>   
>>     
>
> I absolutely agree...even drivel, if repeated often enough, starts to
> acquire an air of credibility.  Having a reply piece that Sun field
> people can hand to customer when they reference the Time or
> InfoWorld article is needed.  It's tough enough out here in the
> field for us without having to invent our own responses to such
> crap.


If Sun wants to communicate to its field, that's fine, but that's not 
really a community issue and we have no visibility into that. Same deal 
about Sun responding in the press. That's a corporate issue. And the 
decision-making process for a corporate response is very different for 
the company than it is for us. There are vastly different dependencies 
and constraints to consider.

The problem with asking Sun to formally respond for us is that it 
changes the dynamic of the issue significantly. The press and Sun 
competitors would have every right to bring up every single corporate 
issue they please. And they would. That's part of the game. The result? 
The original issue gets buried or distorted and others pile on and 
around we all go. When people attack in the media, they are /looking/ 
for a response. They plan for it. That's why they attack. That's also 
why these attacks are directed primarily at Sun and not the community. 
It's more difficult to hit a "community" since it's distributed widely.

It's times like these that we should stand up on our own feet and 
respond ourselves /as individuals/. To me, that's a more effective way 
to assert ourselves as a community rather than having Sun do it for us. 
However, I'm mindful of Simon's words about not hitting other 
communities or their technologies in the process. It's fine to correct 
mis-statements in blogs and comments and lists, but it's not fine to 
toss mud back at them because that will only draw a counter response. 
It's a balance, I realize, but I find that responding with a touch of 
humility and pride does the trick.

Jim
-- 
http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/