[Qgis-psc] Thoughts

[Régis Haubourg]

Le 28/03/2019 à 17:44, DelazJ a écrit :
> Hi,
>
> Thanks Paolo for raising this topic, that somehow was underlying in
> some other discussions. And thanks to make me discover the Debian
> Contract; while the rules seem self-evident to me today, i guess it
> was good for them to have expressed it (though I don't think we have
> the same "issue") .
>
> Régis, maybe did I misread you (though I read your message more than
> once) but am I wrong that the "community" you envision is all about
> people or companies that can pay or get paid for a feature/fix?
>
Hi Harrissou,

don't overinterpret my words here. Currently, our french QGIS user group
is only for individual persons. Opening it to public entities or private
companies will not exclude individuals at all. I must say, it just will
reinforce a very very small group.

> I always (maybe naively) thought that QGIS was part of a bigger
> picture, a way to contribute to a better and more equitable world.
Why naively? I think those who decided to board into QGIS professional
activities took great risks to make the same ideal alive. I fail to see
your point here.
> Coming from "South", I know what this kind of tools can change. And
> Yes, this is what I use to reply to friends and family that wonder why
> I was spending nights and week-ends on things I'm not paid for nor are
> at the core of my daily work.
Having worked in most remote areas of the world, I do too.
> Now, if I'm wrong and this is not (or no longer) the case, and that we
> no longer have users but customers indeed it'd be good to know
> (*Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum*).

I used the term customers from my employer's perspective. Please don't
be picky here. I have been a public funder for years, I still am also a
citizen involved in open source on my spare time (if I still have some),
and I work for a private company, which "tries" to find a viable
economic model for open source. We all need each other here. I don't
think all those roles are incompatible in the open source world (we
don't sell license, we don't lock you in)

> I could then look for a company that cares about QGIS-Documentation
> (to mention an area I know) and then I'd be able to invoice
> (partially, I swear!) my contributions to payers. That said, not many
> of the companies involved in QGIS development have been writing docs
> these last years afaics.

I don't follow you here, can you explain here? I was on the idea that
the documentation grants didn't find candidates last year.

Do we need to include documentation in our contracts? I think yes we
must include progressively these costs in contracts. We already do it at
Oslandia, and sometimes, we are told to be too much expensive.

This is exactly Paolo's point. We have a very large user base, too small
budgets, and lot's of energy pushed by unpaid contributors. How to scale
up? How to keep a sustainable development? How to avoid "open source
burn out" for contributors?  How to conceal real costs handling and
community based contributions.

> Don't get me wrong, I'm OK with the idea that QGIS is (part
> of)livelihood for some and I appreciate many of the features that
> arose thanks to these contracts but... if it should be all about that,
> If we don't have a bigger picture of what QGIS is, what our community
> is or needs to be...

A great project and community for which I quit a comfortable carrier. I
love this, still we have growth challenges to address. We all get older,
we have kids, we must get new contributors in. And my point is that
institutions and private companies MUST also contribute in some way.
Nothing more.


>
> my (dreamer) 2cts,
> Harrissou

-- 
Open Source GIS Expert / Water management 

mail: regis.haubourg at oslandia.com 
tél: 0033 184 257 870
---------------------------------
http://oslandia.com/

OSLANDIA IS AN INNOVATIVE COMPANY SPECIALIZED IN GIS ARCHITECTURE. WE
PROVIDE SERVICE ON OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR WHICH WE ARE EDITORS OR
RECOGNIZED EXPERTS.

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