MapServer Foundation -- marching forward

[Fischer, Brian]

I whole-heartedly agree with you on every point you make.  Especially,
the ones that concern confusing the user base with the naming of
projects!  If all of the things are addressed in your email, I will be
re-assured that the intentions of all parties are good and I will
consider my concerns addressed by the MapServer Community.

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU] On
Behalf Of Puneet Kishor
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 6:51 PM
To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
Subject: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] MapServer Foundation -- marching forward

MapServer Foundation is a good thing.

Having Autodesk join, support, contribute to the foundation is a good 
thing. Welcome.

Having other players, commercial or otherwise, do the same as Autodesk 
is a good thing. Make everyone else feel welcome.

Having only one canonical MapServer is a good thing. Don't even call it 
...Enterprise. Just MapServer. Not Cheetah, not classic, not pro... just

MapServer.

Having Autodesk choose their own name is a good thing. Let them choose 
their name, just not "MapServer..." They have all the liberty to choose 
any name they want, just not the name that has already been taken.

Involving everyone is a good thing. That was not done. Some feel more 
hurt than others. Some for possible monetary loss, some for 
philosophical reasons, some maybe for a bit of both. Let's not do it
again.

Rename the canonical product to one name, reduce the canonical URL to 
one. So, instead of
- MapServer Cheetah (open, all platforms)
- MapServer Enterprise (kinda open, doesn't work on my Mac. Nice name!)
- MapServer Studio (closed, works only with the kinda open product)
- MapServer Foundation
- mapserver.gis.umn.edu (the canonical url)
- ms.gis.umn.edu (the new url)
- mapserverfoundation.org (the spanking new url)
Just have mapserverfoundation.org, and have MapServer, and other 
spin-offs under it. That would be a good thing.

Getting the previous bonhomie back. Priceless.

I have no vested interest in MapServer other than seeing it become the 
most popular, most easy to use, most feature-complete, product in its 
class. I have not contributed any code to it, hence I don't stand to 
gain any huge peer recognition. My job/company doesn't depend on it, so 
I don't stand to gain monetarily. With that disclosure, I would be happy

to mediate between the hurt parties, if required. Other than that, I 
would just love to see the bickering end, and have us really feel happy 
that the foundation has come to pass. Let's move forward. Please.