Re: Community outreach conclusions?

Hello, Rob, and fellow ants!

Glad you like the project! I actually plan on reviewing the first
results of the project in a little while and maybe write this up a
little better, but I'm going to give you an answer to your question,
because I think it is important.

I think the fact that it's similar to MS Word and free is not really
what people like about it, but rather a way to put it into people's
_context_. Since there is a lot less competition in word processors
than earlier in the PC revolution (if you care to call it that - there
used to be WordStar, WordPerfect, and countless others I've forgotten),
most people now think that MS Word is something of its own category, and
a "word processor" is a pseudo-PC, pseudo-typewriter device that you
only use if you can't afford a computer. I think that on the more
mainstream sites, the comparison to MS Word is useful simply because it
gives users something to compare to - since "word processing" is, I
suppose, what we technically do, but it's really much more than that.
Perhaps the invention of a new term with the release of 2.6 and our
collaboration and enhanced document processing features would be a
prudent decision, if we don't always want to stay in the shadow of MS
Word. Our LaTeX math support has already put us beyond Word in that
realm, and AbiCollab is a great innovation that will really put us in
another dimension. (not to mention our amazing import/export support,
OLPC work, and all the other great SoC and other developer projects
underway)

This brings me to my next point, which is about what I really think the
major feedback about AbiWord has been. Though all the simple release
notes mention that AbiWord is like MS Word but free, nearly all the
independently-written articles are about AbiCollab. I haven't put all
these on the blog since they're often very similar and/or in languages I
can't read, but I have seen _so many_ links to the screencasts of
AbiCollab put up by Marc - nearly as many of these posts as simple
release notices with download links. This is really what will
distinguish AbiWord from OOo, KWord, and MS Word in the next release
cycle and beyond - thinking how we can take advantage of the power of
the computer and the Internet to facilitate document creation and
management, not just word processing. This is really some "next-gen"
stuff, not just feature catchup (since we have all the essential
features down pat now).

I know this is what's being said around the GNOME project right now, but
I'd really like to see more of it. New stuff, as in totally new.
Seriously re-thinking how the computer fits into various tasks, then
seeing if there's something the computer can do that it isn't.
AbiCollab is one of those things, and there are others - now the
challenge is to find them! Fortunately, I think these features are also
the ones that are the most rewarding and satisfying to developers since
they are creative - nobody wants to spend the time they give to an
open-source project (or really in any programming task) re-inventing the
wheel unless they have some major improvements to it.

In conclusion, at least with regard to emphasis on features, working on
the ACOP has shown me that what the developers are fired up about is
also what the users are fired up about - AbiCollab and other features
that help people work better and work together better. It has also
inspired me to do what I can to aid this progress and keep up my work
with the Community Outreach Project, because I think the developers need
to hear these things: about how users are satisfied with AbiWord, how it
works for them, and how they look forward to the same exciting things
that we as the AbiSource community do.

Just a brief aside: For all you developers who might need a little
encouragement, I suggest you take a peek at the new "Ego Boosters"
category[1] and associated RSS feed[2] on the ACOP blog - hopefully
hearing how users enjoy AbiWord is motivational! And I do end up
posting basically every negative blog entry I find, after commenting on
it to hopefully resolve their problem. That should give you an idea of
how many people dislike AbiWord - not many at all. In most of the cases
of angry blog posts, a calm few sentences about resolving the problem at
hand then filing a report so that it can be fixed for everyone tends to
bring that emotional level down quite a bi, and we've actually gotten an
apology on the blog about one of these posts. People really appreciate
what the developers do!

Thanks for asking, Rob! I do plan to do a more thorough review, most
likely incorporating part of this email, on the ACOP blog sometime soon
here.

Keep on hacking, ants!

Ryan

[1]
http://cleardefinition.com/oss/abi/blog/category/community-outreach-project/ego-boosters/
[2]
http://cleardefinition.com/oss/abi/blog/category/community-outreach-project/ego-boosters/feed/

Robert Staudinger wrote:
> Hi Ryan,
>
> thanks for running the community outreach project, it's very
> interesting to see what's going on outside the ant-hill.
>
> What I'm wondering is, can any conclusions about the most wanted
> features be drawn from the collected info? It seems the most mentioned
> features are that it's
> + similar to Microsoft Word
> + but available for free.
>
> So, should I get the message out to all GNOME devs that trying to
> invent something completely new they are barking up the wrong tree
> because all users want is a version of windows+msoffice for free?
>
> *ducks*
>
> - Rob
>

-- 
Ryan Pavlik
AbiWord Win32 Platform Maintainer: www.abisource.com
AbiWord Community Outreach Project: www.cleardefinition.com/oss/abi/blog/
"Optimism is the father that leads to achievement."
 -- Helen Keller
"The folder structure in a modern Linux distribution such as Ubuntu
was largely inspired by the original UNIX foundations that were
created by men with large beards and sensible jumpers."
 -- Jono Bacon, The Ubuntu Guide