LibreOffice User Group/Meeting Notes 2019-07-15

Meeting Notes

• Introductions

• Marc Paré showed a slide presentation on the creation of the LibreWaterloo Community Group

What is “The Document Foundation” (TDF) and how does it relate to the LibreOffice opensource office suite

• “The Document Foundation” was created with the “objective of the promotion of office software available for use by anyone free of charge.”

Built on the concept of “meritocracy”. “The Document Foundation is a charitable Foundation under German law, founded on February 17th, 2012. Its objective, as defined in the statutes, is to nurture and develop office software that is free to use by everyone. The foundation furthers a sustainable, independent and meritocratic community which develops free, libre and open source software based on open standards through international collaboration.

• We are driven by thousands of volunteers as well as paid contributors worldwide, and with joint forces, provide the best free office suite, LibreOffice, which is available in over 110 languages, for any major platform.
• Our values are openness, transparency and meritocracy. By using these as our guiding principles, we have made our budget as well as our financial reports public.” (LibreOffice Download Page) [see: https://www.documentfoundation.org/foundation]
• Board of Directors https://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/board/

The TDF is parent organization to 2 projects: LibreOffice Project and Document Liberation Project

• Document Liberation Project [1]
  • The Document Liberation Project aims to attract developers from all corners of the FOSS world to join with the LibreOffice developers, strengthening existing relationships and forging new ones with all who have shared goals in the domain of file formats.The Document Liberation Project exists to provide a home for the growing community of developers united to free users from vendor lock-in of content. It aims to contribute to the flourishing Open Document eco-system by providing powerful tools for the conversion of proprietary file formats to the corresponding ODF format.

• LibreOffice Project [2]
  • is an opensource office suite
  • has over 120 million users at last approximate count
  • has had over 1000 developers work on the code
  • has many community groups organized on all continents except for Canada and US
  • supports over 110 languages and growing
  • available for many platforms, of note: MSWindows, Mac, Linux, SunOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD etc. [3]
  • code is developed from group of volunteer-coders from all over the world
  • manuals/books/marketing/user support/ etc. are all run by volunteers
  • very few paid staff, most are related to infrastructure to maintain servers
    • some staff for marketing, localization …
  • holds a yearly conferences [4]
  • LibreOffice Videos
    • LibreOffice General Over-View https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KC0ZdcA6s8
    • LibreOffice 6.0 New Features https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHBve8v13VY

“LibreWaterloo” (LibreOffice Community Group)

• As LibreOffice Canadian users, we would like to contribute to the LibreOffice Project and have a local presence on the Canadian scene with respect to the LibreOffice Project and software
• We would like to connect with local LibreOffice coders and users alike
• “To have fun” should be one of the pillars and principles we strive for in the organization

Proposal of Activities to Undertake

• Hold regular monthly meetings where LibreWaterloo organization business is discussed
• Present LibreOffice-related news or usage
  • Demystify user-related questions with LibreOffice
• Promote ODF format in Canada
  • Government
  • Education
  • Private Enterprises
  • * Note that TDF has joined OASIS in furthering the development and promotion of the ODF platform. It is now a major active member.
• Organize LibreWaterloo Hacker/Bug Fests; QA Fests; conferences
  • Participate in local/away Canadian/US conferences where TDF/LibreOffice presence may be pertinent
  • Maintain the LibreOffice conference kit
• Documentation help with LibreOffice guides and books
  • Cooperate with local University/College technical writing programs/classes and develop formative technical writing sessions using the LibreOffice guides/books as working examples
    • Getting Started with LibreOffice Guide
    • Writer
    • Calc
    • Impress
    • Draw
    • Base
    • Math
    • Logo
• Spearhead Indigenous language preservation through the Localization Team
  • Seek partnership with the First Peoples’ Cultural Council (http://www.fpcc.ca/)
  • Seek governmental grant applications to help notarize various local indigenous languages in LibreOffice in partnership with Canadian Indigenous stakeholders
• Help contribute to the LibreOffice project
  • Code contribution
  • Choose an aspect of LibreOffice that is under-serviced and contribute in a concrete way, such as specialize in Accessibility contributions
  • Accessibility code contribution
  • Accessibility QA
  • Accessibility User Experience
  • List and testing of compatible tools in the area of accessibility
  • Software compatibility
  • Hardware compatibility
  • canvass/approach hardware manufacturers and seek hardware donations to the community in order to test it against the use of LibreOffice
• Assist the LibreOffice Project where possible
  • Attend Canadian, US conferences as per request for help from the TDF/LibreOffice Project
• Assist and promote LibreOffice ecosystem start-up organizations
• Eventual goal of incorporating under charitable organization
  • Could Help collect any donation to the main LibreOffice Project with receipt
  • Would permit application to government grants for future projects
  • Web Presence
    • Maintain LibreWaterloo web sites, such as website; Twitter, Facebook; mailing lists etc.
• LibreWaterloo members should strive to gain membership with the LibreOffice Project but not required to belong to the LibreWaterloo Community group
  • • Note – to become a member of the TDF·LibreOffice Project requires non-trivial contribution in some aspect of the project over the period of 3 months’ activity and recognized by the LibreOffice community and membership. Thereafter one may apply to become a member of the TDF/LibreOffice in good standing. [5]

For more information or to join the community

Marc Paré
623 Bluenose Crescent
Waterloo ON
N2K 4H4

Cellphone: 519-744-9396
marc.pare@librewaterloo.ca
marc@marcpare.com
marc.pare@libreoffice.org
https://www.parEntreprise.com