[Caml-list] Structuring the Caml community (Re: OCaml's Cathedral & Bazaar)

[Alain.Frisch@ens.fr]

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Alex Baretta wrote:

> Xavier, what you guys must do is not pontificate but define once and for
> all the official role of the community in relation to Inria and to the
> Caml team.

Isn't it precisely what Xavier did in his last mail to the list ?

In my opinion, the problem does not come from the Caml team, but from the
Caml community. The community needs to be more structured, define its
goals, organize discussions, and develop missing tools. Do we really need
an intervention from Above to create a structure that would allow to
foster collaborative work within the community ?  There is a common
interest, collaboration shouln't be impossible.

It would be great to see one of the companies committed to OCaml setting
up a "community web site", lauching specific mailing lists / forums to
discuss technical issues (like "best practices" for packaging libraries)
and less technical ones ("shall we better have a wiki or blogs to make
the community visible ?"), and organizing a somewhat formal system to
reach conclusions in a bounded amount of time (vote ?). Then publish the
results, and call for participation if some resources are necessary to
develop or set up something. This does not seem out of reach, we "just"
need someone to take some responsibility and organize the process. Many
people will be happy to help if some initial impulsion is given.


-- Alain

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