[Aust-NZ] Re: Strategic Investment in Geonetwork Open Source(draft
paper)
Cameron Shorter
cameron.shorter at gmail.com
Mon Jun 30 19:13:21 EDT 2008
Thank you Rob,
Your comments about coordinating sponsors and managing priorities are
very valuable. They provide a good basis for discussion amongst
stakeholders (which I'm hoping Ben Searle will be organising soon).
I plan to action your comments, then migrate the document to a wiki to
allow collaborative editing in a couple of weeks.
Robert.Woodcock at csiro.au wrote:
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I’ve a few comments on the Strategic Investment in Geonetwork Open
> Source(draft paper) document:
>
> * Much of the document is an outline of what constitutes
> appropriate software project management. In that regard it is a
> useful guide when assessing investments, activities and teams
> for the uninitiated
> * GeoNetwork stakeholders list is useful in understanding some of
> the interactions occurring. Interestingly though it does not
> mention the GeoNetwork Project Steering Committee? (There is
> also an error in the CSIRO section, the words for the Business
> Drivers are Rob Woodcock’s (mine) not Rob Atkinson’s - just
> don’t want Rob A to be blamed!)
> * The Community Liaison Officer* *would significantly assist
> development contributions (from any participant) in better
> informing stakeholders and in prioritising work (informed
> decision making) across those organisations that choose to
> participate through this coordination process – noting of course
> that this coordination process is not the GeoNetwork one (that
> isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the objective is to better
> coordinate ANZLIC investments, not take over GeoNetwork)
> * It is entirely possible, potentially useful, for ANZLIC sponsors
> to pool their resources and form a critical mass development
> team with appropriate project management in order to further
> their goals with GeoNetwork. – this may in fact be all that the
> document is describing but it isn’t clear to me that is the
> case, as my next point describes, and if it is then how do other
> projects, like NCIRS SISS, interact given they can directly
> assist the ANZLIC objectives if properly informed?
> * I’m concerned that the document confuses the multiple community
> objectives that make up “GeoNetwork” development, bundling them
> into a single geonetwork activity. I believe it is important
> that this be understood more clearly as it impacts stakeholder
> expectations – for example, expecting a production grade outcome
> from a project contribution that, whilst adding the desired
> feature, is only resourced and intended to add a demonstration
> feature. More over, I’m concerned that this confusion leads to a
> proposition that “developers can be pooled together under a
> common project and project manager but still answerable to their
> respective organisations”. Whilst that may be possible under a
> secondment style arrangement for resources the ANZLIC sponsors
> control, that isn’t the type of situation that exists in many
> useful cases. Groups like BlueNet previously and NCRIS SISS
> which are funded to deliver to their stakeholders have project
> management and contractual obligations – they can’t second staff
> to nor be answerable to an Aust/NZ steering committee. Indeed, I
> can’t see those resources being leveraged in a useful form if an
> external Project Manager attempts to manage those projects, it
> may cause conflict. These project types, where willing, can
> respond to a clear call for features or bug fixes etc and/or
> allow their contributions to be leveraged elsewhere (where their
> contractual terms permit and the communication of those
> development priorities are clear). Indeed, many open source
> project operate effectively on this principle.
>
> Achieving critical development mass, particularly around quality
> issues and production releases, has been one of the principle
> objectives of the NCIRS SISS project setup. It is unusual in that
> regard because it isn’t focussed on building features for its
> stakeholders but on tackling a “gap” in the current community
> investments in the spatial services stack that is hampering deployment
> efforts by multiple organisations (including some ANZLIC ones) that
> NCRIS would like to see happen. The NCRIS SISS project stakeholders
> are in fact interested in responding to a clear call for features and
> bug fixes!
>
> The other main objective has been to work towards a “customer”
> engagement model which provides a more informed decision making
> process – the Community Liaison role suggested is one such approach,
> especially when matched with an equivalent developer liaison role so
> the “pair” can inform both up and down the communications pipe. Ben
> Searle is on the NCRIS SISS Project Committee to assist in this
> regards, though Ben is still keen to see this model improved further.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rob
>
> Project Director – Auscope Grid
>
> SISS – Project Manager
>
> Dr Robert Woodcock
>
> CSIRO Exploration & Mining ,
>
> ARRC, 26 Dick Perry Ave,
>
> Kensington, WA 6151 Australia
>
> Phone +61 8 6436 8780 Fax +61 8 6436 8586
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* aust-nz-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
> [mailto:aust-nz-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] *On Behalf Of
> *Bruce.Bannerman at dpi.vic.gov.au
> *Sent:* Thursday, 26 June 2008 1:57 PM
> *To:* Aust-NZ OSGeo
> *Subject:* Re: [Aust-NZ] Re: Strategic Investment in Geonetwork Open
> Source(draft paper)
>
>
> IMO:
>
>
>
>
> Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote on 26/06/2008
> 09:45:02 AM:
>
>
> > >
> > > Perhaps we could put this into a wiki to allow other members of the
> > > community to help develop it further.
> > Yes, good idea. I planned originally to use a wiki but migrated to word
> > as I find it easier to write in and collate reviews. Once the document
> > has stablized and when I next have a spare few hours I'll move it across
> > (in a week or 2).
> > >
>
>
> OK.
>
> I intend making some comments / additions. I'll use track changes
> within Word and post my version of the document back to the
> OSGeo-AustNZ list so that we have an audit trail and archive.
>
> Cheers.
>
> Bruce Bannerman
>
>
>
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>
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--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Systems Architect
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
Think Globally, Fix Locally
Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source Solutions
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