[OSGeo-Board] Potential for an Incubation Sprint / OSGeo meetup

[Jo Walsh]

dear Frank, all,

On Wed, Apr 05, 2006 at 12:10:27AM -0400, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> I love the idea of an incubation sprint.  My concern would be that June
> is quite late for it.  My hope is that as many as half the projects might
> be out of incubation by then. 

I'm so pleased to hear that incubation has this much forward energy! 

> If we were to have an incubation sprint, I think it would be important
> to lock everyone (all project reps) in a room for a couple days, with
> Rich, Daniel and perhaps some input from other interested parties to
> hammer out what it means to be a foundation project, and what degree
> of "foundationness" we want to try and attain in common.

Right, this connects again to the "Social Contract" idea; what people
and projects are committing to when they become foundation members. 
"Foundationness" can be interpreted in many ways; technical and legal
clarity in code is a start. What you describe sounds more like a
general OSGeo summit than something incubation specific. 

> At one point you refer to a Incubation/Stack
> sprint.  What other ideas did you have that might be accomplished?

This comes out of the platform that telascience may provide; both as a 
geodata repository that we can build and offer as an archive facility; and 
for the software stack to build on that, to get really convincing demos in
place. Projects have their own demo facilities; some work closely with
others already, in the way Geoserver redistributes Mapbuilder now. A
Stack Sprint would work across the whole Foundation, showing how well
the different layers complement each other. 

But "really convincing" to me is not just another interface to VMap0 or
BlueMarble, visible in different interfaces. This is why I'd like to
connect with existing research and data-sharing projects which are
dipping into Open Source now, where there could be a lot of mutual
benefit in getting them introduced to the "stack".
 
Perhaps it's better for me to talk in terms of real-world examples.

1. Steve Romanewski from the Center for Urban Research is involved in
a lot of data-sharing initiatives in NYC. A few years ago his group
worked on http://www.oasisnyc.org/ . This project received an
ESRI/Microsoft 'grant' of software to build their application with.
There's some deep data in there, and he's keen now to separate out
what can be redistributed from what is under license constraints, and
make as much data has he can publically available in raw form. He's
very interested in open source geospatial, and doesn't have a sense
yet of what open source projects can provide, that would be a "leap
ahead" from Arc* lock-in; a way of extending past work into new
projects with minimum effort; a standards orientation. He's presenting
at Where We Are, and keen to find out what OSGeo projects can provide.

2. Dan Putler is involved with a data-sharing initiative across
counties in Minneapolis, which is now moving towards "facilitating
collaboration on common application needs"; http://www.metrogis.org/
Again, they've had a grant-supported proprietary platform in the past;
have Mapserver and WMS in their sights now; have some data that can be
publically reused, and are working on repository / metadata facilities.

So a "Stack Sprint" to me would be an opportunity for OSGeo project
representatives to work together for a couple of days, but also be
able to make contact with people who have real-world use cases, 
have some institutional support, and have a focus for building.
This leads into cross-application demos that are already going to be
really useful to someone, and will get shown around a lot. This
becomes something that can be documented as a "leading example" to
show value to other government and research inititiatives; especially
if it's something that can come together really fast: "Look how much
we can achieve in a matter of days!"

But really any kind of "sprint" is just an excuse to get together, for
people to spark off each other and head back to where they came from
with renewed forward energy and a sense of shared goals.

> I think the foundation could bring forward modest resources to facilitate
> a face to face meeting if needed.

On Tue, Apr 04, 2006 at 10:38:37PM -0700, Gary Lang wrote:
> How much would it cost?

Travel expenses, really, and optional accomodation if this stretched
beyond the capacities of a sofa network. If connecting an OSGeo sprint 
to Where We Are makes sense, then a free venue could be available at TOPP
or at CUNY for two days before the weekend. Perhaps some institutionally  
backed projects would consider providing their own members'
representatives expenses. 

cheers,


jo