[Board] geoserver code sprint funding request

Thu Dec 3 13:07:46 PST 2015

Thomas I am finding it a bit difficult to respond to your email - I am not
sure how much of your feedback is from ignorance so I will do my best to
provide links. I want to be clear I am not judging yourself, the geoserver
psc or any of the organizations participating in GeoServer.

- OSGeo is not being asked to cover airfare, they are being asked to
sponsor a code sprint. The organizers of the sprint (Andrea and myself) are
making the decision on how best to make use of your support.
- The organization and priorities of the Paris code sprint are provided by
their budget.
- GeoServer operates <http://geoserver.org/roadmap/> on a time boxed release
cycle of 6 months
<http://docs.geoserver.org/latest/en/developer/policies/community-process.html#release-cycle>.
This is very much a community decisions, it helps small contractors get
paid, but hinders downstream projects such as GeoNode and OpenGeo Suite due
to "rapid" release cycle.
- I would like to know what gives you the impression this is a corporate
event - perhaps it helps that additional attendees are signing up this
week. I guess the only thing I can do is break our usual OSGeo wall and
list organizations against each of the participants. If you are concerned
that this is a boundless corporate event - I will specifically note that
Boundless has a company retreat scheduled for later in the year. If you are
concerned that many of the participants are consultants - that accurately
represents our GeoServer community. Once I have locked in funding/dates I
will reach out to the local university and see if any students are
interested in the participating.
- The location is based on travel costs (and to a small extent venue costs)
as outlined in our GeoServer meeting notes.

The GeoServer PSC is in an awkward situation in setting up this sprint
around an activity not in the best interests of all of our participating
organizations. Specifically the Wicket GUI is a success factor for the
GeoServer as a project and community - however paying customers focus
almost exclusively on the the REST API. There are several
<http://boundlessgeo.com/2014/12/composer/> examples
<https://github.com/boundlessgeo/qgis-geoserver-plugin> of alternate user
interfaces written in this manner.

To repeat there are no marketable developments going on - this is straight
up technical debt incurred because the needs of the GeoServer community
diverge from corporate interests.

If it helps my own consulting company, how2map.com, will be sponsoring the
sprint.

--
Jody Garnett

On 3 December 2015 at 05:21, thomas bonfort <thomas.bonfort at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Jody,
> While I have no doubt about the reasons that make this sponsorship
> desirable from a community/developer point of view, my reluctance
> stems from:
>
> - AFAIK there has been no precedent where OSGeo has actually covered
> airfare for these events.
> - There is another code-sprint happening a few weeks later. Should
> travel expenses for that event be covered by OSGeo?
> - I understand you have deadlines that make the Paris code sprint date
> too late. Too late for the corporate backers or for the community?
> - Given the attendance distribution and location of the sprint, this
> very much seems to me like a closed corporate event. I understand the
> paid developer time is a significant investment, but I also do however
> feel that this is asking OSGeo to step in to finance housekeeping
> tasks that should be covered by the companies who are making money on
> the more marketable developments going on.
>
> My feelings for this:
> - Use OSGeo to market the event and collect external sponsors, but
> don't ask for that sponsorship directly to OSGeo
> - In the longer run I am supportive of OSGeo sponsoring these kinds of
> events. I just believe this here is the wrong event to be a starting
> point for that.
>
> Best regards,
> Thomas
>
> On 26 November 2015 at 22:28, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I have asked the GeoServer community what they need for a sprint - the
> > answer was:
> >
> > a venue
> > airfare
> > participants (in-person)
> >
> > We are keeping accommodation costs low (members of the local OSGeo
> > community, such as Martin Davis, have volunteered to host guests).
> Boundless
> > has provided a venue, either their Victoria office (in-kind) or a local
> > shared office space (marked as $1250 CAD in-kind in the budget). We are
> > expecting attendees to feed themselves.
> >
> > I admit this is a pretty barebones sprint, but it is the first one the
> > GeoServer community has organized, and we are focused on results rather
> than
> > socializing.
> >
> > I am more concerned with this event failing due to lack of participants
> than
> > fund raising, in part because I believe OSGeo and sponsorship can cover
> the
> > modest costs for the event. And because we are doing everything we can to
> > keep costs down.
> >
> > I suppose extra fundraising food/beer could help attract participants
> > (anyone with prior experience running a sprint please advise). I did not
> > want to misrepresent the event as a social gathering.
> > --
> > Jody
> >
> > On Thu, Nov 26, 2015 at 1:09 AM thomas bonfort <thomas.bonfort at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> I assume the fact that I'm caricaturing the facts a bit here, but is
> >> it OSGeo's role to be funding travel expenses for a private company's
> >> meeting?
> >>
> >> --
> >> thomas
> >>
> >> On 26 November 2015 at 08:39, Jeff McKenna
> >> <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com> wrote:
> >> > On 2015-11-26 9:56 AM, Jody Garnett wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> I have filled in the wiki page
> >> >> <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GeoServer_Code_Sprint_2016> here, and
> >> >> taken
> >> >> the budget forecast into a google document
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> <
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mp2xWq95t1rqwle6_WCQ0qD8D9-1icitLH0AiJQ7r4Y/edit#gid=990228872&vpid=A1
> >.
> >> >>
> >> >> This funding request is an agenda topic for the Dec 10th meeting.
> >> >> --
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Note that this request was not added as an agenda topic for the Dec
> 10th
> >> > meeting, so I have added it now:
> >> > https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2015-12-10#Current_items
> >> >
> >> > Please everyone, if you have an important topic, don't forget to add
> >> > your
> >> > item yourself.  Thank you.
> >> >
> >> > -jeff
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > _______________________________________________
> >> > Board mailing list
> >> > Board at lists.osgeo.org
> >> > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Board mailing list
> >> Board at lists.osgeo.org
> >> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/attachments/20151203/fb720c3b/attachment.htm>