Hi Stan, Everyone else,

I have been dreading this for some time now… but I have to do it.  I have to announce that I can no longer support the GOSP or its software right now.  Here is the story:

My original intention was to get the project to the point where it reached “critical mass”; enough support that the project could continue on its own if I had to leave.

We started off very well, but then got derailed by a certain event.  Vincent Euverte saved our project by asking us to come and work with his efforts at Projet Rosette.  This was a match made in heaven.

Unfortunately, we set our initial goals a little too high; we wanted to have an example of a lexicon made from PR’s data and fonts using our software by a certain conference, where Vincent could announce our efforts.   While we met our goal, it took all of my time and I was unable to grow the project. 

For instance, as Stan brought up, the source code in SVN at the moment is far from complete.  I checked it in when I did so we would have something up there during our announcement.  The software we have now has several major flaws:

-          It has some ties to PR software that is not yet available to the public (and cannot be distributed to anyone outside PR).

-          The JSesh integration is seriously out of date and may no longer work.

-          Since most of it was written in haste, it is poorly factored and has little documentation.

As such, it may be very difficult for someone to take it over in its current state.

After we completed our example, Vincent and I started working on web-based software to facilitate a review of the PR’s data before we generated the lexicon for public consumption.  This was to be the first joint effort between the PR and the greater group of GOSP volunteers (i.e. more than just me).

Just after we started, I took a CTO position with a new company (a critical move for my career and finances), and have subsequently taken a second (part-time) position as a technology consultant with a not-for-profit.  Since then, working one and a half jobs has given me no time to give this project what it needs or deserves.

I stalled for over six months hoping things would settle down, and that I could resume commitment; but it is obvious that will not happen anytime soon.

So, I am coming back to the group in search of suggestions.  Is there anyone who would be interested in taking up the software and getting it into a deployable and releasable state?  This is no small task!  J  Seriously, anyone interested would need the following skills; Eclipse, Java, XML, and XSLT, with a basic knowledge of Maven, XSL-FO, Spring Dependency Injection, and JAX-B.  I can provide help through phone and email.

Now, we could also use someone to work with the PR on the various projects that we were collaborating on; using our software with their fonts and lexicons, and creating a lexicon review system.  Persons on this project would work closely with Vincent and his team.  Volunteers would have to be approved by them.

Our Yahoo group is being maintained nicely by Jerry McCarthy.  Jerry are you still happy or are you looking for a replacement?  Either way, that position could still use a deputy.

Vincent Brown volunteered a while back to maintain our site.  We are using a content management system called CMS Made Simple.  It is a very straight forward and easy to use product; normally.  Unfortunately, it took some effort and hacking to get it to work on Source Forge’s servers.  Subsequently, it doesn’t work 100% correctly and I never got the time to give Vincent the information he needed.  Furthermore, the version of CMSMS up there is a couple of generations old and seriously needs to be upgraded (lest we get hacked).  Do we have anyone interested in tackling that mess?

Maybe this is all moot.  While we can distribute our software, we cannot distribute Mark Vygus’s list because of copyright concerns and the PR was still in the process of getting permission to use their list (from Griffith) and fonts (from the various contributors). 

Even if this is the end of the GOSP, I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to all who contributed their time and efforts, and to say I really enjoyed working with everyone.

I also want to congratulate Vincent Euverte and Karen for the success of their projects.  It takes a phenomenal amount of time and effort to run such groups.  I remember when Karen first started her group so many years ago.  It really has grown!

Will Meriic