Thank you for posting this! I don’t have any issues saying I agree 100% with what you say. It taps into many “smaller” conversations we have been having at Kaleidos around how to evolve what you call FSDL. At times, we find ourselves struggling with all the challenges, from licensing to collaboration. TBH, our very private challenge is to be able to be part of a enlightened conversation around the future of FOSS and… just creating amazing tools for others to push forward their needs or agendas. For the time being, I think we’re going to focus on the latter but we’d love to discuss the more fundamental topics that go beyond tools themselves very soon in 2023. Oh, what a time to be alive!
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Love the direction of thinking, and very thankful for your thoughtful and thought-provoking post on our forum.
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I think this is an imporant point. I understand some of the concerns brought forward regarding taking VC money. However, most concerned takes I have read are written from a perspective of established open source culture. This is a developer-driven culture organized around code. Often, this leads to projects that are great for developers, but design being an afterthought. There is also a strong focus on self-governance by the community of developers based on merit (usually assigned, again, by code contributions). Self-governance, however, does not in any way guarantee that the community is inclusive and welcoming or that it values design. For the non-dev-community, (developer ) self-governace might be not better than any other model of governance.
I hope that whatever Penpot becomes, that it remains a tool that is usable and useful for developers and designers alike and that it is accessible and welcoming for a wide range of people.
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That was wonderfully expressed! At Kaleidos (so this includes Penpot and Taiga and their future soft confluence) we’re concerned about accessibility and inclusiveness around open source tools and communities. I will happily engage in open-source governance-model debates but I also want to make sure we address other questions around how to make open source really inclusive and accessible to a wider population. The Kaleidos’ thesis is that the next big thing will come from designers and that having both working together will be a true game changer.
I think the fact that we’re getting so much attention after the FigmaGate represents that a lot of people have suddenly started to care A LOT about this, and with much care typically comes much expectation (that translates into much pressure to the team). In the midst of all the uncertainty, my rock is the team and how we approach what @jdittrich sees as the main challenges for Penpot.
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Congratulations. And also thanks for such post, its nice to know what is going on like this.
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