• Set a joint strategic direction for future of TWiki.
• Define the release themes for TWiki 5.0
• Inspire more energy in community's software development
• More languages
• Define a TWiki marketing strategy, and get community support for TWiki PR and blogging
• Initiate more community working groups (Doc, User, etc.)
• Get new TWikiApplications developed

Some topic heads of discussion / tough questions / rough timings. Feel free to add/modify/completely deconstruct and rebuild. I'm sure I forgot lots.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 06 Aug 2007

Day 1 (16th August 2007) - Morning

Where have we been - where are we going - how do we get there

• Review - 1h
  • Introductions, who's who
  • Where are we with TWiki?
  • How are the competition getting on?
  • What is working well? What isn't?
  • Where do we want to go from here?
  • Quick high-level review of outstanding ideas "in the pipeline" from Codev (Kenneth, can you generate a list?) - no discussion
• Strategic direction - 2h
  • Enterprise TWiki vs. Open Source TWiki
    • Does the TWikiMission still make sense?
    • TWIKI.NET
      • Parasite or symbiote?
      • Are the requirements consistent? Will the OSS effort diverge? When/what will TWIKI.NET start contributing to the OSS?
      • Is their licensing compatible with the GPL?
      • Should OSS compete in the Enterprise TWiki space?
    • Would TWiki be healthier if TWIKI.NET had competition?
    • How about a TWiki marketplace?
  • TWiki Applications vs. featureful TWiki
    • If TWiki is perfect, why do any more dev? Are we flogging a dead horse?
    • Where are all the application developers?
    • What is all this AJAX crap, anyway?
    • I18N support - flagellation d'un âne mort?
• Development models & decision making processes - 1h
  • Is the dev model working?
  • Where should requirements come from?
  • Should hero programmers be left to make hero decisions? If not, who will?
  • Do working groups ever work?
  • If not, what might?

Lunch - 2h incl. siesta (hey, this is Italy)

Day 1 (16th August 2007) - Afternoon & Evening - TWiki Marketing

How to sell what we have - how to recruit new faces & energise old ones

• Marketing OSS TWiki - 2h
  • What are we selling? Why should anyone want it?
  • How should we sell it? Do we need to?
  • Should TWiki.org let TWIKI.NET take over all marketing?
  • Release themes?
• What sort of organisation would work? - 1h
  • Working groups? Champions?
  • Pay someone?
  • Regional 'distributors', certified distributors / companies per country?
• Engaging & keeping contributors - 1h
  • TWiki marketplace
  • Competitions
  • Recognition
  • Support from industrial users
  • Conferences, meetings
• Community building ideas - over dinner
  • see CommunityBuildingExampleTypo3 for some inspiration...

Day 2 (17th August 2007) - Morning

• Hey, this is what I did - 3h
  • A chance for attendees to scratch their itches in public, and show off their own work. Sign up here:
    • I'd like 1/2 an hour to talk about WYSIWYG, can do demo - CC
    • (15m) I can present our experience at ILOG - ColasNahaboo: usages, skins, blogs, bug tracking, integration with other apps
    • (15-20m) What do usability nerds think of TWiki? Implementation and customization of TWiki at SirValuse Usability Consulting - CarloSchulz
    • (15m) I can showcase two recent projects where I deployed twiki, one that failed because of usability issues, one that is still under construction and promising. TWiki:Main/KoenMartens
• Discussion - 1h

Day 2 (17th August 2007) - Afternoon

• Performance / profiling
• Doc
• Languages
• Applications
• Overspill

Discussion

While I will not be able to attend the Rome summit, here are some more questions that bother me:

1. There is no instance to receive a donation for "TWiki" besides Peter Thoeny himself, individual developers or related for-profit companies. Do we need a TWiki association? Can WikiRing or TWIKI.NET fulfill this role?
2. Do we need more TWiki distributions besides the standard bundle available on twiki.org and if so, how are they targetted / advertised? (on twiki.org, wikiring.com, twiki.net, ...)?
3. What kind of TWikiApplications do people need / expect to see?

-- MichaelDaum - 07 Aug 2007

It worries me that apparently GPL'ed code is relicensed under a very restrictive and incompatible license by twiki.net. It is allright if this is done with 'their' code, but you can't just take someone elses GPLed code and slap another license on that. These worries must be adressed. I yet have to do my research on this, but this might seriously affect the willingness of people like me to invest into contributing code to twiki. A fork (which is apparently what we have here) is the worst thing that can happen to a project generally.

-- KoenMartens - 08 Aug 2007

I've added an 'introductions' round to the review, just a short 'My name is X and i'm involed with TWiki such-and-such'. It will be the first time i meet any of you, plus it is always good to know where the people in the group are coming from.

-- KoenMartens - 08 Aug 2007

Will there be internet access from the meeting room? It would be vey useful to be able to show demos of live sites, or to fetch information...

-- ColasNahaboo - 10 Aug 2007

Don't know, sorry. There's no evidence that any of the organisers has actually read this topic yet, so it might be an idea to mail Peter directly.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 14 Aug 2007

Yes, I am reading this topic, just many things going on. Good start on the agenda! I suggest to move the "Hey, this is what I did" earlier, before the strategy discussion so that we have a base of who is who and who is doing what. On strategic discussion, it should be based on our TWikiMission. And, in regards to parasite, ahem, we are all in the same boat. My goal as stated earlier is to bring all TWiki stakeholders closer together. Moving from a ship that gets blown in all different directions to a ship that is on a steady course, heading for the TWikiMission.

Koen: I am not sure where you (and others) got the idea of a fork. Please read my initial post on TWikiDotNet and you will see that TWIKI.NET is commited to work closely with the community. Frankly, the lack in trust takes me by surprise (after spending 10,000+ hours on open source TWiki, and counting.) It's simple. If you (and others) have questions, please ask.

We will have a projector and wireless internet access.

-- PeterThoeny - 14 Aug 2007

Peter, you are right, my initial comment was a bit quick after i heard about twiki.net, hence the phrase ' I yet have to do my research on this'. I did, and am now quite confident that twiki.net will be for the better indeed (i even wrote an article on it for a local opensource/openstandards site: http://tinyurl.com/ywbovj, it is in dutch but babbelfish might help out).

Still, it would be nice to have a bit of discussion on the topic.

-- KoenMartens - 15 Aug 2007