[Board] a long story starting with SOAP and ending in Switzerland

[Frank Warmerdam]

J
Jo,

My quick response is:

  o Projects like GeoTools (the only one signing over copyright to the
    foundation so far) should try to remain pragmatic that some contributors
    might not want to do so.

  o Work for JRC and other european initiatives should keep the IP held by
    consulting/contracting organizations that implement the changes. Presumably
    European companies.

  o If it is hard for OSGeo to speak on behalf of the european foss4g
    community because it is too American, then I think an existing
    european organization (perhaps a substantial OSGeo local chapter or
    an affiliated group like GRASS GaV.  I think moving to Switzerland isn't
    *really* solving anything, and I don't think we can support the
    complexity involved in having formally incorporated OSGeo organizations
    as shells in many places.   If we have to be somewhere, I think the USA
    with 501(c)3 status is the most appropriate unless US law (patent, etc)
    were to essentially drive us out.

I'd add that SOAP doesn't look like a dinosaur technology from my point of
view, but them I'm a bit of a dinosaur myself.  I am on the WCS revision
working group, where I gather there will be additional efforts to naildown
SOAP support in WCS 1.2.  I'd love to see SOAP support implemented for
MapServer by some European individual/group with JRC funding.

I appreciate the brain dump.  From my perspective these european activities
are often pretty murky.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org