OSM gone wrong

I guess you are pretty angry at the moment, Guido. I understand this:

1. OSM is going after you because of something harmless, neglecting or turning blind eyes to the real big things happening out there as far as money and Joomla is concerned.
2. OSM did not support you when your URL's were stolen back in 2007.
3. OSM did not keep their promise to promote you and Stichting POST when you gave back the European Brand to (Stichting POST offered it as a present of several hundred euros).

With OSM as a friend we do not need enemies?! Time for a fresh team of realistic OSM members?
I do not know.

One thing I do know: TYPO3, Drupal and WordPress will take care of a CMS project where the atmosphere that our “leaders” create, frustrates good folks.

@OSM: If you really want to demonstrate your power: go after the commercial third parties that generate millions of dollars per year on template and components. That would be brave.

Wow, that's pretty lame…

The two tweets I did was non-threatening, it was more as information about something Guido already knew.

I didn't want to see that a future buyer spend a lot of money on domains like joomlacertification.org or joomlacertified.net and then put up a Joomla certification program with those domains and come into discussions with OSM, since we believe that a certification programme should be something official, qualificatory, benefit the project and be open for the whole Joomla community and not, for example, turn into pay for a certification without any validity and making people believe that its someway quality approved from the Joomla project. I mean, why else should a buyer buy a domain like “Joomlacertification.org” ?

And if you read the trademark and domain policy, you will see that OSM is very permissive in licensing domain usage but they are non transferable without OSM permission. Other Open Source project has a more restrictive domain policy than Joomla has.

So I'm really sorry if you are disappointed and annoyed, but its better that than a future buyer will get into trouble.

“Joomla Certification is in interest of the whole Joomla community and not only a private company or a few individuals.” – and who is the community at the end? Is it OSM or the people behind that community?

lorenzogarcia – stop threading the people. You simply can't do anything to a domain name and you know it.

Thx for all the support from you guys (aka the REAL Joomla community)!

Just stumbled on osm.org.uk It might explain osm's lack of transparency

“since we believe that a certification programme should be something official, qualificatory, benefit the project and be open for the whole Joomla community”

It's ok for OSM to have that opinion, but I don't see any reason why no-one else can setup a good certification program that can benefit the whole Joomla community, even if it's commercial. Who is OSM to claim that domain? Besides: there have been talks about 'official certification' since the beginning of Joomla and there still isn't so why would you surprised that community efforts start to arise to compensate for this? OSM clearly doesn't get it working, maybe the real community cán.

Let's be clear: I respect all that put lot's of time into OSM to benefit the Joomla project. But if you restrict community efforts, don't keep your promises and generally do a bad job (and I'm clearly not only speaking for myself here, read the rest of the comments), what's the point?

Hmmm… looks dark… ;)

Angry yes. Or at least very disappointed…

There is no problem for an individual or a company to setup a certification program if it's done on own merits and in an own name. I think everything that helps and stimulate professionals and developers to increase their skills and give recognition would benefit the Joomla project and the community.

The problem starts when someone use the Joomla name as a part of the certification for to give the certification recognition and giving it a quality aspect and then it hitback to the project if the certification doesn't meet the expected quality level or is abused. If someone instead would setup a certification program using it's own company like “Zend certificate in Joomla development”, then it is that company's reputation that is on the line for the quality.

I would be surprised to see if there are any open source project with a trademark policy (ie bigger open source projects) that allow that you set-up a certification program in its name.

You have the same problem with domains like joomlacertification.org, since there is a big possibility that a professional/developer or an end-user would believe that the project is behind or endorse a certification from a such site.

I think certification has been discussed back since Mambo times and it has been discussed both publically in forum threads, internally and on different events. A certification program is a complex matter there several obstacles need to be solved for to give a such program longlivity, quality, credibility and accessibility for the whole community. I personally really want to see a such program and I believe that the obstacles will be solved.

You raise an important issue and it's that we always need to look how we can lower the barriers so we don't restrict community efforts, collaboration, creativeness and joy but in the same time be able to look after the whole community's interest.

Guido,

First of all I total agree with your article and do agree with you that OSM has no case if they went to the court for the domain names issues. Also note that OSM is stated in the US – New York and the questions is how the laws are relevant to domains names issues by other top level domain name issuers. And don't forget that these OSM rules came after 1 year that Joomla was founded and a lot of us made bussines on the Joomla CMS.

Also what OSM forgets (although they are always referring to it) is that the community (that are we) is building Joomla and has Joomla made great in the past. But it also the community who is switching to other environments due to the bureacratic.

Also nice thread: http://www.alltogetherasawhole.org/group/intern…
Quote from it: “It is my understanding there is some discussion going on between OSM “leadership” and the organizers of this conference regarding OSM's blessing, use of the word Joomla, $500 for Joomla events, and various other BS which seems to be the rule these days when dealing with OSM bureaucrats.”

Really dont want to get involved with this rant (done enough of my own ranting this year) but to clarify the “$500 for joomla events” referred to above is the ammount of money OSM has been able to give to JoomlaDay organisers to support the event. It is not as implied a fee payable to OSM by JoomlaDay organisers.

I can well understand your reaction Guido. OSM needs to rethink the way it treats the community. Magento is good :) we use it too.

Lachlan
Have you seen Magento's Licence and Trademark FAQ?
http://www.magentocommerce.com/license/#Can%20I…

Yes, I agree with you. I think Magento is amazing (I personally using it as well) and Varien is a great company that understand that an Open Source business model can be more powerful than a proprietary. There are big difference between Magento and Joomla since Varien is into this as a part of a Commercial venture. But Joomla like other Non-Commercial Open Source projects also have needs to protect their trademarks since it's an collaboration effort of many people and not an individual or a business entity.