[LAU] Mission Statement

[Patrick Shirkey]

On Mon, May 14, 2012 4:03 am, J. Liles wrote:
> On Sun, May 13, 2012 at 7:32 AM, Folderol <folderol at ukfsn.org> wrote:
>> On Sun, 13 May 2012 02:20:34 -0700
>> "J. Liles" <malnourite at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 8:54 AM, Mike Mazarick <mazarick at bellsouth.net>
>>> wrote:
>>> [bullshit]
>>>
>>> Sigh. My opinion? Do something useful or GTFO.
>>
>> Perhaps the above is a contributor to the 'smallness'.
>
> I sincerely doubt it. I've been a fairly major contributor to Linux
> Audio for about half a decade now and I've posted less than a 100
> messages to the mailing lists. People who have what it takes to get
> things done do--people who just talk rarely accomplish anything. I'm
> certainly not the reason why you or anyone else isn't buckling down
> and making the world they want rather than complaining about the one
> they've been handed. I would much prefer that *everyone* in the
> community do something useful.
>


This list is for discussion. If someone thinks that it's worthwhile to
start a thread about a mission statement what is the problem?


> There is no master plan. There is no mission statement.

Maybe it's that way for you but it's not that way for everyone.


> There is only
> a handful of crazy/brilliant people making the tools they need to do
> the work they want to do. Only occasionally do these parameters
> overlap. I don't see anything wrong with that.
>

This community is much bigger than you seem to think. There are several
thousand members of this list and Linux Audio developers has more too.

Then there are the various other lists that people contribute to on a
regular basis who have nothing to do with this list.

My best estimate is there are at least 10,000 active contributing members
of the global Linux Audio community.

If that was a company then we would be a decent sized organisation and
bringing in at least a billion dollars a year.


> The day that Linux is *the* mainstream platform for audio, if it ever
> happens (don't hold your breath) will be just another day for me. I
> couldn't care less. Everyone will be running some layer of shiny
> proprietary crap on top of the framework we built anyway and it will
> be just as irrelevant to me as Windows and OS X are now.
>

Linux Audio will be irrelevant to you *or* the shiny layer of proprietary
crap?


> And furthermore, to set the record straight: Any developer of a
> large/complex free-software project knows very well that it isn't
> about being cheap either--time is money and this stuff take a *lot* of
> time.
>

expertise, research, effort, motivation, communication, planning, funding,
marketing, resources...

In terms of a mission statement for Linux Audio Community we already have
the Linux Audio Consortium. My suggestion is that if someone wants to add
value to that discussion they should look at contributing to the
Consortium.

If the Consortium does not provide the platform then just put your ideas
out here and see who wants to contribute.

Otherwise find a project that you think is a good starting point for your
objectives and get involved. The more, the merrier...


--
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd