[Incubator] GeoFunctions Incubation Application

[Rushforth, Peter]

Hi Frank and Cameron,

> > OSGeo on the other hand has a goal of promoting Open Source 
> Geospatial 
> > Software by show casing the best Open Source Geospatial software 
> > available. Unfortunately this doesn't quite align with your 
> goals. Ie, 
> > I don't think GeoFunctions is mature enough for OSGeo 
> graduation yet.

I think GeoFunction's goals and OSGEO's goals align, mostly.

What could be more open source than XSLT, which when used in
the client can be explicitly viewed as an HTTP resource, and
which doesn't need external compiling to do useful things with
geodata? 

But I agree that the project is not mature.  I will try to drum
up some more support at FOSS4G.  I will promote it at the GeoFunctions
BOF:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FOSS4G2007_BOF_Sessions#GeoFunctions_-_X
SLT_2_functions_for_GEO_using_saxon
;-)

> > What I suggest is that you request something similar to the MOSS4G 
> > project - a Mobile client. MOSS4G are using the OSGeo 
> infrastructure 
> > (svn, bug list etc) but are not officially promoted by OSGeo.

I will have a little bit of time to devote to the project this fall.
Since I haven't actually got a code repository or a bug list started,
I would be willing to use OSGEO svn and trac,  and I could put in
the time this fall to initialize those resources, and hopefully
add some more code.

> However, I would like to see it prosper.  If OSGeo infrastructure
> (trac/svn) would be of benefit that is a possibility.  I also 
> wonder if it would make sense for GeoFunctions to be loosely 
> affiliated with some existing project.

Cameron suggested I advertise on the MapBuilder developer list to
see if I could generate some interest there.  I will do that.

I thought of GeoServer, because GeoFunctions could be a useful 
WFS request and response translation filter, 
but I notice it's not an OSGEO project either.  But once I get 
a bit more ground under me, I'll go see them too.
 
> I sort of have the same problem with libraries like libtiff, 
> libgeotiff and PROJ.4.  I think they are useful parts of the 
> "OSGeo Stack" but it isn't clear to me that they have 
> substantial enough communities to justify being freestanding 
> foundation projects with the overhead that this implies.

Thanks for your advice and support.  I'll come back to ask about
those trac and svn resources when I am ready to go this fall.

Cheers,
Peter