Re: PostgreSQL derivatives - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 6:37 AM, Simon Riggs <simon@2ndquadrant.com> wrote:
>
> I agree with that assessment. I don't think it's a desirable or
> unchangeable outcome, which is why I initially refused to attend the
> recent EnterpriseDB-sponsored developer meeting unless Greenplum people
> were also invited. I would like to see people encourage their
> participation. When the project allowed one company to sponsor the
> meeting it made a huge error, especially when the project had no need
> for the funding. It sent the wrong message and I noted that Truviso were
> not represented either, on the day.

Both Greenplum and Truvisio had people invited, and if you recall when
organising the meeting I repeatedly asked everyone to point out if I'd
missed anyone. My primary concern when inviting people was to invite
the most highly active developers. Secondary to that, I made a point
of inviting at least one senior person from each of the major
PostgreSQL contributing companies, including both of those
organisations. *No* companies were intentionally excluded, and I
assure you that except where funding was concerned, the meeting was
organised entirely with my core hat on.

EDB paid for the lunch and the room, largely because when considering
holding another community meeting in NJ (as you've previously
attended), Denis and I figured that a much more open meeting would be
more useful to everyone, so I set about to organise exactly that.

If you wish to 'right the wrong' that you see, then next year 2nd
Quadrant are more than welcome to pay for the food and conference
room, and I will continue to organise the event. I really don't care
who pays for the chairs and sandwiches.

> I am worried about contribution
> levels from all companies and also note that EnterpriseDB's real
> contributions to the community of late are not significantly larger than
> 2ndQuadrant's, now you've spurred me to think about the topic.

I'm not going to go into specifics, but code contributions to the
server are by no means the only contributions EnterpriseDB make to the
community. We're doing a lot of marketing work to try and help drive
adoption of PostgreSQL, and reaching out into other communities with
new tools and other code contributions to help them move to
PostgreSQL. I spend significant amounts of time working on community
'stuff' that you probably don't see so much these days, as does Bruce
(contrary to rumours spread by Denis at pgCon :-p), and EDB staff help
people out on various mailing lists every day.

> What can
> we do to actively encourage participation from all companies?

Now *that* is a good question. The primary driver for a company to
contribute to the community is of course that they will gain from it.
The tangible benefits to Truvisio and Greenplum are obviously far less
than they are to 2nd Quadrant or EnterpriseDB because their businesses
are built around such heavily modified versions of the server. I don't
see that we can necessarily change that.

--
Dave Page
EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com