EccoProWiki: EccoOpenSource

I just got off the phone with Steve Mitchell, General Counsel for Netmanage. He approached me because Netmanage is considering open-sourcing the Ecco code, perhaps under a GPL or LGPL license, and he wanted to reach out to the Ecco user community for support. Steve has asked that anyone interested in becoming involved in the open source project speak up. Netmanage is considering holding a meeting regarding the project in December or January, either in New York (perhaps at my offices) or at some other location. Please feel free to speak up.

Jeff

On 22 Feb 2005 Jeff Sonnabend said...

I just received an Email from Steve Mitchell over at Netmanage. His message was "No news yet. We are still evaluating." [open source] I'll let everyone know when I hear something new.

This is sooo funny! *Incredible* timing of events. Gotta tell you a bit of a story...

But first, I need to say:

  Hi guys! It's been a while. Worst tech-disaster of my life
  last September knocked me offline in many ways and I've been
  catching up ever since. So, sadly, I've missed 100% of the
  discussions that have been going on here since Steve called
  Jeff in November.

But that makes this story even MORE amazing...

This has been such a WONDERFUL supportive community over the years. Jeff, Dave, Nick and more on the technical end, and lots of helpful users on the userhelp end.

So, over the years I've been bugging a few friends in SiValley? about the possibility of taking EccoPro? open source. But nothing ever came of it.

As long-time Eccopro-groupies know, we haven't talked about OSS here since late 2002. It back-burnered for me as well until last summer when we got heavily involved in another OSS initiative, and I began to wonder again.

Fast forward... All fall we're nose to the grindstone recovering from loss of several man-months of work...a long-time friend in SiValley? diagnosed with terminal cancer just before Christmas *really* slipstreams life...schedule a SiValley? trip for February (conference, see our sick friend and catch up w/ others)...back to regular speed.

So, here's Steve writing Jeff on Feb 22 about OSS (remember, I'm clueless, no EccoPro?-group email, and I'm on a trip anyway)... the next evening, we get together w/ a bunch of long time friends. One of them, who last-second decided to show up, is part of my "friends from NetManage? long ago" group. In the midst of everything else I asked him about EccoPro?-OSS possibilities. That led to email and phone conversations with NM people. More about that later.

But I need to finish the story...

On the phone, Steve Mitchell kept saying "wow, your timing is REALLY good".

Not MY timing. I didn't set up these "coincidences" I was just trying to see what might happen, taking advantage of another opportunity to maybe connect the dots so some Good Stuff could come out of Ecco after all these years.

How could I have known??!!...

Steve was already proactively participating in this YahooGroup?... Jeff was already facilitating the conversation... Dave and so many others were already moving things along...

I'm stunned. Stunned and delighted! I had NO CLUE you all have been talking about this for the last three months, because I've had no time to open that window in my email software.

I thought it was wayyy cool, finally having a window to talk with NetManage? people about providing resources to breathe life into Ecco (and possibly "breathe" Ecco into other initiatives)...

And I didn't have a clue. Steve said "your timing is great." I asked "well, how long has this window been open?" "Oh, a couple of months" and he gave a few inside-NetManage? reasons why.

So I finish my trip, open my EccoPro? email box, and sit here stunned. I want to break the exciting news about possibilities with EccoPro? and Open Source... And here you all are, vigorously going after the various issues that relate to taking it into the Open Source world.

I wanted to give a party, and I'm actually late for the celebration!

I Love It!!!!!!

+ Pete Holzmann ICTA(r), Executive Director +

Hello All

I'm surprised that no one has made any mention of Archie Roboostoff's momentous message yet.

Jeff Sonnabend mentioned, in message 15163, that Archie would be posting a message to the group, and here it is.

This is something that so many of us have been waiting for, and yet for some reason the main topic of conversation that many of the most recent posts have been concerned with is something other than Ecco. My incredulity comes from the lack of reaction to what may be the most important event that concerns Ecco that has occurred in some time.

I find the juxtaposition of the current topic of conversation within the group and the lack of public response to Archie's post quite ironic.

I sent my response last night.

Has anyone else responded?

Franklin

It's odd that the message asked only for interested developers to contact netmanage directly. But considering the multitude of opinions voiced here on the direction of further Ecco development in this forum, maybe they just want to help that whatever development does occur isn't a complete anarchy.

Davor

The reason we are only looking for developers at this time is because we are looking to find people who will be module owners, build leaders, etc.

-Archie

... but it certainly did NOT invite those who might be popularizers or translators or whatever that might give ECCO a chance to reach the audience it could and should.

Nancy

Let me be clear. All are welcome when we launch the open source site. For now, we need to start from the top down. For this we need developers who can manage the CVS checkins and perform the module builds. That is all I am asking for now. Once the site is launched, all are welcome to do as the wish.

-Archie

By all means, create wish lists! The open source group is just not ready for it yet.

What Netmanage is looking for is the infrastructure people, not the end users. Once the infrastructure has been created, wish lists will start to have meaning. For now a wish list is just a list with no one to act on it.

These developers will manage those wish lists, implimenting what can be implimented, defering what needs to be defered. At times they will not be popular. At other times they will be saviors. But nothing is happening untill they have been formed into a meaningfull unit focused on the common goal of breathing new life into ECCO.

Michael

... my last try...if you were building a significant house, you would most likely hire an architect, and if you were sophisticated, you would pull in a landscape architect VERY early in the process, and if you were planning on using an interior designer, you would pull that person in too. ALL of them would be working together (from the start) to create a final vision FROM the wish list

Let's believe that Ecco deserves at least that amount of forethought and integration.

Nancy

As a former managing consultant, and program manager, I tend to agree with Nancy's point -- as my most successful projects have been those where the development team worked closely with the end-users from the very beginning "kick-off" discussions all the way through each iteration and the final delivery of the completed project.

One thing I think is needed right away, is some sort of an Ecco shared database or some sort of collaborative repository, where all of the various requirements and even "wishes" that anyone cares to submit are captured and managed.

Once we have a way to manage the requirements and provide an online tracking mechanism for them, then the architects, UI designers, program mangers, testers, and software engineers can collaborate together as a virtual project team to identify and write specifications for the "core functionality" that must be developed first.

Personally, I would be very interested in working with others on possibly specing a taxonomy for developing the requirements repository (engine) or collaborate in identifying, gathering and cataloging the "core business requirements", writing user stories, use cases, personas, or any other types of initial requirements artifacts or functional / design specifications.

Looking forward to working with you to realize the vision.

Regards,

Kevin The Northstar Group

I'm confident these things will be created very quickly, once NM has come to their own conclusions about what and who and how they intend to nurture this transition.

Remembering that we've survived quite a few years with almost zero forward motion, I'm determined to be as patient as it takes to see this transition through. Not a lack of determination mind you, just a willingness to allow for all necessary time as things develop...

Pete

I'm *still* looking for a replacement to EccoPro? that I used on Windows 10 years ago. I've since moved to Linux and Mac but I would be very, very interested in working on porting to either of these platforms if the code is open sourced.

Can anyone update people on this list on progress and where we currently are with this ? Even better, can someone get a yahoo group together or start thinking about resources on sourceforge or the like ?

ciao ! Daryl. daryl period manning arabas gmail [dot] com

I would be very excited to see ECCO go open source! I really hope this happens, and though I am not a developer per se, I have a lot of project management experience, if I can help out in some way, and would be happy to.