MapTools & Foundation

[Daniel Morissette]

M Joonas Pihlaja wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Where does maptools.org fit into all this?  Is the plan that
> libraries like GDAL/Shapelib/etc be then moved over to be the
> foundation's projects?
> 
> Or going the other way, was a Map Tools Foundation considered?
> Seems like it would be a good umbrella for lots of diverse
> projects including the two map servers.  The domain's right
> there, and I'd hate to see function of maptools.org as a focal
> point of open source GIS be split off into two.  (Although, I'm
> not sure if the projects on maptools would all care to be
> subsumed into a foundation.)
> 

Yes, the MapTools Foundation was considered as a very serious 
possibility, and personally I found that this name would have made lots 
of sense, but eventually it didn't fly for a few reasons, those that I 
remember are:

1- It's too closely tied to DM Solutions and may have given the 
appearance that it's not completely independent. Making sure that the 
foundation was seen as being entirely vendor neutral from day one was 
extremely important. This was not a problem if we used a name such as 
MapServer, and the name MapServer seemed to make lots of sense too, as a 
recognition of the achievement of the project and its community of users.

2- That would have lead to an issue of what to do with the projects 
currently on maptools.org and that may not belong or want to move to the 
foundation right away. I think this could have been addressed, easily 
thought with two classes of projects: hosted projects and foundation 
projects for instance.

Daniel
-- 
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  Daniel Morissette               dmorissette at dmsolutions.ca
  DM Solutions Group              http://www.dmsolutions.ca/
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