So, it's now official: important and well-regarded members of the OpenOffice.org community are forking the project and have launched LibreOffice, under umbrella of the Document Foundation:

Our mission is to facilitate the evolution of the OpenOffice.org Community into a new open, independent, and meritocratic organizational structure within the next few months. An independent Foundation is a better match to the values of our contributors, users, and supporters, and will enable a more effective, efficient, transparent, and inclusive Community.

It is not a secret for anyone who has been watching the OpenOffice.org project for the past decade: its dependency on single commercial organization has slowed down the project and has been detrimental to the motivation of an otherwise very active and dedicated community. It's a pleasure to see the beginning of a new chapter for what is now LibreOffice.

This does not mean that Oracle (who took over Sun Microsystems) is not welcome anymore. As stated by the press release:

Oracle Corporation, owner of the OpenOffice.org trademark, is invited to become a member of the foundation and contribute to the development of the code.

I wish the best of luck to this new effort and wanted to congratulate the community members who have the courage to take the bull by the horns in order to lead the project towards a better future.

Edit: a few goo reads this section may be updated over time.