big drive to fund Shen

[Mark Tarver]

The upgrade to the web site is the first part of a drive to secure proper funding for Shen to allow OS Shen and SP to merge.  I won't disguise that this is a challenge - even Steve Marquess of OpenSSL struggled to get funds for OpensSSL.  But with cooperation from different parties,  much can be achieved.  The first part of the drive is happening offsite right now.   

Mark

[Mark Tarver]

In an earlier post,  I spoke about the plan to join up OS Shen to SP by 2020.   What has triggered my thinking is the completion of > 200 pages of written documentation for SP which will go out this month for SP users.  As a writer and educator, it is natural for me to want to reach the widest readership beyond SP.  This makes OS the logical choice.

The problem with OS has been that the economic engine has been too weak to drive the project.   I think with the flow of recent articles on OS, everything that has been written confirms what I wrote 10 years ago.

However this very fact is a cause for optimism.    Because having finally acknowledged there is a problem,  supporters of OS are trying to suggest solutions in different websites that have emerged only the last few years.   I've actually been scanning articles on OS for signs of this evolution and I'm beginning to see new solutions 

The current situation of having a forked project is suboptimal, but it is better than stagnation which was what was happening before the fork.   But the optimal situation is to have the OS project properly funded.  I think this is achievable, particularly if the Shen community work together on this one.   If so, 2020 can be brought forward drastically.    So in the coming weeks I'm going to be working with the best of these new solutions to see what can be done.   You'll be hearing from me.

bw

Mark