> Hi folks, > > We held a GMPI working group meeting last Sunday as part of the MMA > annual general meeting. Tim Hockin did a great job presenting the > requirements document, and I presented some preliminary material and > took a few bullets during the follow-up Q&A. > > About a dozen people attended the meeting. I apologize if you were > there and I didn't get to say "hello" personally to each of you. > > Right now we're in a very strange place with respect to the MMA and we > need to decide what to do next. Two major companies who we had hoped > would be at least minimally supportive of this effort have expressed > their disinterest. The feeling was that the best thing GMPI will do > is enable smaller plugin vendors to easily deliver across mulitple > platforms (thanks to the planned wrappers), but that larger > established plugin vendors already have this technology and don't need > it. > > There was also concern about the fact that GMPI would potential be > developed in a way that large commercial companies would have little > control over. The point was made that the MMA is supposed to be > companies who make money doing this sort of thing; if a GMPI working > group member wasn't willing to pay the $400 to join the trade > association then they can't be taken seriously as a commercial > enterprise. > > I personally understand both points of view. I happen to think the > idea of enabling smaller vendors to deliver on more platforms more > easily is very attractive. Ultimately it will drive innovation among > music plugins and instruments. But I also agree (as a commercial > vendor) that this needs to "matter" to parties who are doing this for > a living, either individually or as part of a company. > > So, decision time. We can continue on outside the MMA and start > writing code on SourceForge or similar. But this runs the risk of > increasing the amount of noise from casual participants. There is > also the dange that GMPI as implemented starts to diverge from the > requirements that we worked so hard on. And when we're done there is > little assurance that an association like the MMA will want to adopt > GMPI. (It's bears mention that the MMA would want the copyright on > the specification -- not necessary the "reference implementation" aka > the code.) > > Or, we each can consider how "commercial" we are, and decide whether > or not joining the MMA makes sense. I believe there are about a > half-dozen or so small for-profit companies represented on this list, > all of whom aren't in the MMA. IF these all join, AND these all agree > to participate in the version 1 effort within the MMA, we stand a MUCH > greater chance of getting broad commercial adoption. > > Comments? >