MapServer Technical Steering Committee Proposal

Thomas E Burk teb at MALLIT.FR.UMN.EDU
Wed Jun 29 10:30:43 EDT 2005


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>Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:05:19 -0500
>From: Steve Lime <steve.lime at DNR.STATE.MN.US>
>Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-DEV] MapServer Technical Steering 
Committee Proposal
>X-To: fwarmerdam at gmail.com
>To: MAPSERVER-DEV at lists.umn.edu
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>
>Sorry to be so slow with comments. Had technical problems last 
evening and MN is facing a State Govt. shutdown and preparing for 
that is dominating normal work hours. Could have lot's of time to 
work on this stuff come Friday... ;-)
>
>Anywho, like everyone else said, thanks to Frank for getting the 
ball rolling. I think this is a solid document. I'd be happy to 
chair this committee.
>
>I think using the mailing list is the right place to present a 
proposal and vote. Once that has taken place I'd like to see a 
"technical committee" portion of the website used to store 
proposals as opposed to CVS or bugzilla. Voting history could be 
appended once completed. And once a proposal has been accepted 
then a bug filed to track it's implementation. CVS doesn't feel 
like the right place for the proposals to me. Just an opinion, 
perhaps there is precedence for using CVS. The website could then 
be the place were committee make up, announcements and other 
stuff could be presented to users. 
>
>It would be nice to have a proposal template. Anyone seen 
anything like that? I'd volunteer to work something up if there's 
not already something out there.
>
>The suggestion of adding a "power user" is a good one too- Perry 
fits that description although I believe Frank included him as 
the UMN connection. That's not absolutely necessary in my 
opinion.  
>

I'd like to see Perry kept on the proposed committee list.

Tom



>Steve
>
>>>> Frank Warmerdam <fwarmerdam at GMAIL.COM> 06/24/05 4:16 PM >>>
>Folks,
>
>We have had lots of talk over the last year or more about 
"process"
>but without a process to make a decision we haven't really done 
anything.
>I have prepared a proposal for a mechanism, which is attached 
and
>also available in CVS under rfc/ms-rfc-1.txt.
>
>I am first putting this up for discussion but assuming 
relatively positive
>feedback I will seek unanimous approval by the proposed voting 
members:
>
>  Steve Lime, Daniel Morissette, Frank Warmerdam, Sean Gilles, 
Assefa
>  Yewondwossen, Howard Butler and Perry Nacionales.
>
>This isn't meant to be the be-all and end-all of committee 
constitutions.
>Just enough process to get us going so we could decide a few 
other
>things and know we have reached some sort of closure.  
>
>
>
>	MS RFC 1: Technical Steering Committee Guidelines
>	=================================================
>
>Author: Frank Warmerdam, Independent, warmerdam at pobox.com
>Proposed: 2005/06/24
>Last Edited: 2005/06/24
>
>Status: Proposed
>
>
>Summary
>=======
>
>This document describes how the MapServer Technical Steering 
Committee 
>determines membership, and makes decisions on MapServer 
technical issues.
>
>In brief the technical team (primarily developers with commit 
priviledges)
>votes on proposals on mapserver-dev.  Proposals are available 
for review
>for at least two days, and a single veto is sufficient delay 
progress though
>ultimately a majority of members can pass a proposal.
>
>
>Detailed Process
>================
>
> 1) Proposals are written up and submitted on the mapserver-dev 
mailing
>    list for discussion and voting. 
>
> 2) Proposals need to be available for review for at least two 
business
>    days before a final decision can be made. 
>
> 3) Detailed proposals, especially those that are likely to live
>    for a long time, should be written up in flat text, and 
submitted in 
>    mapserver/rfc (in CVS). 
>
> 4) Respondents may vote "+1" to indicate support for the 
proposal and a
>    willingness to support implementation. 
>
> 5) Respondents may vote "-1" to veto a proposal, but must 
provide clear
>    reasoning and alternate approaches to resolving the problem 
within the two
>    days.
>
> 6) Anyone may comment on proposals on the list, but only 
members of the
>    Technical Steering Committee's votes will be counted. 
>
> 7) A proposal will be accepted if it receives +2 (including the 
proposer)
>    and no vetos (-1). 
>
> 8) If a proposal is vetoed, but an absolute majority of 
committee members
>    support the proposal (with +1's) then it passes. 
>
> 9) Upon completion of discussion and voting the proposer should 
announce
>    whether they are proceeding (proposal accepted) or are 
withdrawing their 
>    proposal (vetod). 
>
>10) The Chair gets a vote.
>
>11) The Chair is responsible for keeping track of who is a 
member of
>    the Technical Steering Committee (perhaps as part of a TSC 
file in CVS). 
>
>12) Addition and removal of members from the committee, as well 
as selection
>    of a Chair should be handled as a proposal to the committee. 
>
>13) The Chair adjudicates in cases of disputes about voting.
>
>
>When is Vote Required?
>======================
>
> o Anything that could cause backward compatability issues. 
> o Adding substantial amounts of new code. 
> o Changing inter-subssytem APIs, or objects. 
> o Issues of procedure.
> o When releases should take place.
> o Anything that might be controversial. 
>
>
>Boundaries of "Technical"
>=========================
>
> o If it relates to changes in the code, it is technical.
> o If it relates to how the developers cooperate, it is 
technical.
> o If it relates to documentation, or web site it is arguable 
whether
>   it should be decided by the technical steering committee. 
> o If it relates to events such as conferences, it is not 
technical.
>
>
>Observations
>============
>
> o The Chair is the ultimate adjudicator if things break down.
>
> o The absolute majority rule can be used to override an 
obstructionist
>   veto, but it is intended that in normal circumstances vetoers 
need to be
>   convinced to withdraw their veto.  We are trying to reach 
consensus.
>
> o It is anticipated that seperate "committees" will exist to 
manage 
>   conferences, and possible documentation and web sites. 
>
>
>Bootstrapping
>=============
>
>Steve Lime is declared initial Chair of the Technical Steering 
Committee.
>
>Steve Lime, Daniel Morissette, Frank Warmerdam, Sean Gilles, 
Assefa
>Yewondwossen, Howard Butler and Perry Nacionales are declared to 
be the 
>founding Technical Steering Committee.
>
>
>Best regards,
>-- 
>---------------------------------------+------------------------
--------------
>I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, 
warmerdam at pobox.com
>light and sound - activate the windows | 
http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
>and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer 
for Rent
>
>



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