Personal acknowledgements of MPL

This morning I hit publish on the announcement of the MPL 2.0, a two-year finishing process. The official announcement had a number of thanks for the many people who helped along the way, but I wanted to take to my personal blog to add a few personal notes.

"Thank you note for each language," by woodleywonderworks, used under CC - BY 2.0.First, Gerv Markham. GERV has many ways central to the mission of open source Mozilla for some time and it would have been easy for him to feel threatened when I dropped by parachute and began working on the licence. Instead, it has been helpful, patient and constructive - everything you would want a team member and co-worker.

Second, Brett Smith of the FSF: Brett brought a very professional constructive approach to working with me on the licence. Without his dedication and patience, the GPL compatibility new approach would have failed. Aaron Williamson and James Vasile to LTCS and Richard Fontana to Red Hat also contributed to this and new a given freely of their time, when they had not. They also retained a straight face when I proposed the new approach, which has probably helped many in getting to. :)

Third, Karen Copenhaver and Heather Meeker were incredible pros helping drive it off the betas critical helped me to pass through the important questions and get the right, in a way only with decades of experience can make the language. They were willing to give of their time to Mozilla and me was incredibly generous - to large law firms, most of the partners are not prepared to take these measures. And I say not only that, because Heather is now my boss. ;)

Finally and most importantly, Mitchell Baker and Harvey Anderson: Mitchell and Harvey took a bet when they brought me on this project - they did not need to do. It is their baby for the past ten years, and that they could have done this work themselves, or let the licence continue to age elegantly (as he did). Not only they gave me this great opportunity, they open their mind and then their calendars me. As a result, I had a great educational experience, learning nook and cranny of the licence and on how to write a document that stands the test of time. (Rumour that Mitchell wrote the original in a month, I find it always amazing, and I can confirm that the text is always burned in his brain in high resolution.) It was truly an honour and a privilege for me to participate with them and in this process, so I am deeply grateful for their encouragement and the invitation to participate.

I will probably write more here soon on the licence and the process, but thanking people was really at the top of my priority list.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 10: 14 and is filed under miscellaneous. You can follow your comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment or a trackback from your own site.

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