open letter to Brailcom regarding Speech Dispatcher and SpeechD-Up

[Jan Buchal]

>>>>> "JB" == Jan Buchal <buchal at brailcom.org> writes:

    JB> Dear colleagues, Brailcom is a fully professional non-profit
    JB> company, which realizes a whole set of projects for the visually
    JB> handicapped. The company gets its financial resources for these
    JB> projects from EU grants or grants of the country Czech Republic.
    JB> Another important source are commercial activities, mainly in
    JB> the field of development of information database systems.

    JB> Brailcom has its own team of highly qualified developers and
    JB> managers. The main criteria for project realizations are:

    JB> - The need for it and the meaning of the project - Our ability
    JB> to realize the project in high quality

    JB> In the case of the Speech Dispatcher project, as the head of the
    JB> Brailcom company, I cannot currently promise any resources for
    JB> future development. We however still believe that this project
    JB> plays a key role and is worth of support. I'm happy that the key
    JB> developers of Free Accessibility also consider it as
    JB> significant. However, I have to remind you that this was not the
    JB> case in the past and that the change came only recently. It
    JB> happened with the requirement to move to D-BUS, which meant that
    JB> it was necessary to leave the old concept of Gnome Speech and
    JB> find a new way.


Please read this paragraph carefully. I wrote that "currently" not for all
time in the future. Brailcom does not plan to leave the Speech Dispatcher
project.

Another situation is with the Speechd-Up project. Please read the
notice on http://www.freebsoft.org/speechd-up

    JB> Brailcom has in the past offered and presented its vision about
    JB> the functionality of the speech interface, including written
    JB> presentations. Some time ago, we have also started working on a
    JB> new implementation of Speech Dispatcher, which was based on the
    JB> experiences from past development and was also bringing
    JB> completely new features. The feedback on this vision and its new
    JB> implementation was however minimal from the key accessibility
    JB> developers. As a result, Brailcom become alone in the project.

    JB> Our current view is not different in any way and we still
    JB> consider the path outlined as the right one. If enough resources
    JB> can be found, this means concrete man hours in the form of paid
    JB> developers or volunteers, we would like to continue this
    JB> project.

    JB> As you surely know, Speech Dispatcher is a Free Software
    JB> project. This means that if somebody has a different vision and
    JB> enough resources to realize it, there is no obstacle for him to
    JB> follow this way.

    JB> In any case, Brailcom currently still offers a stable
    JB> environment on the freebsoft.org development portal, as well as
    JB> management of the project, including a search for new sources
    JB> for its realization.

    JB> We will be happy to welcome new members to our development team,
    JB> who want to identify themselves with the long term goals of our
    JB> organization. The doors are open to everyone in this sense.

    JB> Yours sincerely,

    JB> Jan Buchal -- Chief Executive Officer

    JB> Brailcom, o.p.s. Mob: +420608023021 http://www.brailcom.org

    JB> _______________________________________________ Speechd mailing
    JB> list Speechd at lists.freebsoft.org
    JB> http://lists.freebsoft.org/mailman/listinfo/speechd

-- 

Jan Buchal
Tel: (00420) 24 24 86 008
Mob: (00420) 608023021