Very exciting indeed.<br><br>Always having more more opensource mapping softwares to play with. Can't wait to see what this step brings.<br><br>Xin<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 28/11/05, <b class="gmail_sendername">
Emil Zegers</b> <<a href="mailto:taatuut@planet.nl">taatuut@planet.nl</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Congratulations all with this remarkable step ahead.<br><br>Looks like MapServer is getting even more mature very quick.<br><br>Also looking forward to see proposals for the new logo :-)<br><br>Regards,<br><br>Emil Zegers
<br><br><br>----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----<br>Van: Steve Lime <<a href="mailto:steve.lime@DNR.STATE.MN.US">steve.lime@DNR.STATE.MN.US</a>><br>Datum: maandag, november 28, 2005 2:37 pm<br>Onderwerp: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] MapServer Foundation - Open Letter
<br><br>> An Open Letter to the MapServer Open Source Web Mapping Community<br>><br>> November 28, 2005<br>><br>> Greetings MapServer community,<br>><br>> We are pleased to share with you some exciting news about the
<br>> future of open source web mapping.<br>><br>> Over the past few years MapServer adoption has grown ten-fold and<br>> has become the web mapping platform of choice for many businesses,<br>> government agencies, nonprofit groups and individuals. The
<br>> MapServer developers have added powerful new features. The<br>> community has enjoyed three incredible conferences and continues<br>> to support each other and enhance the community.<br>><br>> We want to ensure that this success and momentum continues for the
<br>> MapServer product and community. MapServer continues to run well<br>> in diverse environments and its rich set of features play an<br>> indispensable role in many organizations. More than ever, we are<br>> committed to improving MapServer and providing exceptional value
<br>> to the community.<br>><br>> To this end, we take this opportunity to share two bits of news:<br>> the creation of the MapServer Foundation and welcoming the<br>> addition of Autodesk's next-generation web mapping platform
<br>> (previously known as Tux) as open source into the foundation.<br>><br>> MapServer Foundation<br>><br>> We are delighted to announce the creation of the MapServer<br>> Foundation (<a href="http://mapserverfoundation.org">
mapserverfoundation.org</a>). The foundation is a<br>> nonprofit organization whose goal is to provide a supportive<br>> framework for open, collaborative development of geospatial<br>> software. Several groups and individuals are collaborating to help
<br>> launch and sponsor the new foundation. Financial support from<br>> Autodesk will allow us to get the foundation up and running. In<br>> this letter, we present some ideas of how we think the foundation<br>> can help the community, but these ideas need broader discussion
<br>> and debate within the community.<br>><br>> We looked to other successful open source movements, such as<br>> Apache, to see how our community could benefit from the creation<br>> of an independent foundation. It is clear that the time has come
<br>> to create a formal infrastructure to help further support and<br>> promote the professional open source web mapping development<br>> environments and communities. While initially focused on web<br>> mapping projects, we hope the foundation will adopt other open
<br>> source geospatial projects that need a home.<br>><br>> Forming the foundation is only the beginning, as we now seek<br>> community involvement and participation. The foundation will have<br>> a governance model that allows it to be run by a Board of
<br>> Directors that represents the community. How it is ultimately<br>> going to be run is up to the members of the community. The<br>> foundation will also have a set of bylaws that provide structure<br>> and can be amended through a community voting process.
<br>><br>> Role of the foundation<br>><br>> The first priority for the foundation is to engage the broader<br>> MapServer community. Members of the community are encouraged to<br>> join and get involved. Consider this letter as your invitation to
<br>> participate. The community web site is the place where you, as a<br>> user and participant in the community, can follow and contribute<br>> to the development of the MapServer Foundation family of projects.
<br>><br>> The primary responsibilities of the foundation may include:<br>><br>> * Support code repository and other project infrastructure<br>> * Formalized process for decision-making (e.g. where to host
<br>> the next conference)<br>> * Legal protection for the source code and developers of the<br>> software * Paying for development work on minor improvements of<br>> the platform<br>> * Acting as a central repository for marketing, branding and
<br>> professional image development of the product<br>> * Providing process for mitigating disputes<br>> * Financial support for advocacy, sponsorship, community<br>> events and conferences<br>><br>> Many of these community-related functions have been overseen in an
<br>> ad-hoc manner or deferred to the University of Minnesota or other<br>> organizations in the past. The foundation will streamline the<br>> coordination of legal, administrative and governance efforts.<br>>
<br>> As MapServer will now be officially managed by the foundation, it<br>> no longer makes sense to call it UMN MapServer. Product branding<br>> is also becoming more important and this is a good opportunity to
<br>> introduce a more visual name for the product. We propose calling<br>> it MapServer Cheetah. This presents a fast and agile image that<br>> suits the product well and will help differentiate it from other<br>
> MapServer products.<br>><br>> MapServer Cheetah & MapServer Enterprise<br>><br>> We are also very excited about Autodesk's decision to release<br>> their next generation web mapping platform into the open source
<br>> community through the MapServer Foundation. This adds further<br>> legitimacy to our open source development platform. Their product<br>> will be named MapServer Enterprise and is the successor to<br>> Autodesk MapGuide but built on an entirely new architecture.
<br>><br>> MapServer Enterprise and MapServer Cheetah will be run as two<br>> separate but parallel projects. There are no plans to merge them<br>> into one but we aim to share technologies between the two projects
<br>> wherever possible. We also hope to provide utilities that allow<br>> the community to easily use one or both platforms.<br>><br>> MapServer Enterprise will be licensed using the OSI-approved GNU<br>> Lesser General Public License (LGPL). MapServer Cheetah will
<br>> continue to be licensed under an MIT-style open source license.<br>> Autodesk is eager to participate in an open and transparent<br>> development process driven by independent guidance from the<br>> community. We encourage you to check out MapServer Enterprise,
<br>> which is available today on the community web site.<br>><br>> We are proud to be part of this community and we hope you will<br>> join us in establishing the MapServer Foundation. For more<br>> information on how to get involved, please visit the community
<br>> site at: <a href="http://mapserverfoundation.org">mapserverfoundation.org</a> and join the mailing list<br>> discussions.<br>> Sincerely,<br>><br>> Steve Lime, Chair, MapServer Technical Steering Committee (MTSC)
<br>> Yewondwossen Assefa, MTSC Member<br>> Howard Butler, MTSC Member<br>> Daniel Morissette, MTSC Member<br>> Perry Nacionales, MTSC Member<br>> Frank Warmerdam, MTSC Member<br>> Tom Burk, University of Minnesota
<br>> David McIlhagga, DM Solutions Group<br>> Tyler Mitchell<br>> Claude Philipona, Camptocamp SA and FOSS4G 2006 organizing committee<br>> Gary Lang, Autodesk<br>><br></blockquote></div><br>