Feedback is Coming

I have plenty of feedback for this project. I am usually too polite - but now my feedback will not all be positive. Some pet projects need to be killed. Some need to be excluded. Some aspects need to be modernized. As a whole the core project UI needs to be reworked and polished. This is probably extremely hard to justify inside an academic environment. The overall message of Lively (and video demos) needs work. This project has the potential to change the world. If I hurt anyone please just suck it up. I am angry at this situation of few contributors and no funding.

The Lively Kernel project has been public for over two and half years. In April of this year I had to nag to create a Wikipedia page for the project. Dan mentioned the Sencha project in a recent email. The fact that they are now a competitor to this project and recently acquired 14 million dollars set me off. I am angry - but not at anyone in particular. If no one is exploring any degree of funding to help propel this project or derivatives then that is a great tragedy. Non-profit or commercial - still a great tragedy. Equally, the fact that Lively is not spreading to other institutions is also a tragedy.

I recently did some mockups for Lively in Google Drawings instead of the wiki. Jens sent an email reminding the 98 mailing list subscribers to remember to use the wiki. I have been the most active external user of the Lively wiki - however that was last spring. The wiki is one of the coolest aspects of this project. I am not currently using Lively or the wiki much due to extremely inadequate hardware. Due to the level of my own personal standards of quality, drawing in the wiki is going to completely frustrate me. The problem of few using the wiki needs to be solved. Polish the UI. Find more users beyond the 98 on the mailing list. Find funding.

So I have more feedback coming. I'll try to be kind. I am angry. Suck it up.

I posted a feedback document online. It's not quite as dramatic as my last email. :-) It's not perfect - I'd rather be drawing.

Break rules. Don't be afraid to stray from Morphic conventions or Smalltalk conventions. Lively needs to foremost become a vector drawing application. It's familiar. It's explainable. It has immediate value and traction.

Philip