[Board] mapfish project status

Mon Nov 25 10:10:24 PST 2019

I am afraid I did not get a chance to read this email before our meeting
(as it was sent overnight).  I am glad the community is alive, this
activity is as much about communication and responsibility both of which I
hope can be addressed.

On Mon, Nov 25, 2019 at 6:24 AM María Arias de Reyna <delawen at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thank you for this insight Emmanuel. It clarifies a lot (at least to me).
>
> Projects evolve and mature, that's a natural process.Developers come
> and go and the PSC should be renewed too if a person gets too
> disconnected from the project. We have seen this happening on other
> projects, it is no surprise. And although it is hard to let go a
> project you consider your own, it is something we all should do at
> some point.
>
> If current PSC wants to get involved again with the project, that's a
> good option. If current members of the PSC think they are no longer
> connected with the newer developments, I think it makes sense to renew
> the PSC with active people and check again the status of the project.
> Maybe even go through incubation again, to make sure we didn't lose
> anything on this process? We can look at this as a new project, if
> that could make things easier. Most of the check points should be
> completed already.
>
> If OSGeo Board is shaking the tree to check if we should remove (or
> not) some projects is just because we have been lacking a proper
> follow up on projects. So projects that didn't make an explicit effort
> to reach OSGeo kind of felt into oblivion. A lesson we have learned:
> we have to be more proactive asking for feedback to make sure projects
> don't die or "evolve too far from us".This evolution could have been
> followed up by the Board making the transition inside OSGeo smoother.
> Not sure if that's possible at this stage? I have been never very
> close to Mapfish community to comment on something only the community
> can tell.
>
> Cheers!
> María.
>
> On Mon, Nov 25, 2019 at 2:08 PM Emmanuel Belo
> <emmanuel.belo at camptocamp.com> wrote:
> >
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I'd like to add some information in preparation for the OSGeo meeting.
> >
> > MapFish has multiple tribes: the python one, a PHP one as well as a Ruby
> on Rails one. With time and experience, the python tribe (developers and
> the users community) identified some shortcomings in the technical
> architecture and decided to rewrite the mapfish python part to make it
> easier to implement rich webgis applications. It has been implemented
> without coordination with the other tribes in a new version, lead by Eric
> Lemoine (MapFish PSC Chair), Brunot BInet (MapFish PSC member) and many
> others from the MapFish community contributors, [2] like Alexandre Saunier,
> Yves Bolognini, Frédéric Junod, Pierre Giraud and others.  So the
> development team is the same, as the one that participated to the
> incubation process for the python and the front end part.
> >
> > Comparing the obsolete mapfish description with the geomapfish one tells
> us, the same goal is pursued:
> >
> > mapfish.org:  "MapFish is a flexible and complete framework for
> building rich web-mapping applications."
> > geomapfish.org: "GeoMapFish allows to build rich and extensible WebGIS
> in an easy and flexible way."
> >
> >
> > On the technology side, the implementation team kept the same frameworks
> they worked on in the previous version: pylons, geoalchemy, etc on the
> server side, and geoext on the client side.
> >
> > The Python tribes users base is the same, with users migrating to this
> new version. the community grew as this new implementation has been
> successful.
> >
> > As time passes, some developers moved on and others joined. The python
> implementation and the front end side are well maintained. It welcomes
> contributions and receives some, having on the backend 6 organisations
> contributing to it and 10 organisations contributing to the front end.
> >
> > I see no kindness in some past members saying the project should be
> removed from the OSGEO and see no advantage for the community doing so.
> It's right, the architecture is no longer exactly the same, but the project
> goal, the community and the frameworks are the same.
> >
> > I think the current issue we face is having an updated PSC reflecting
> current engagements in the community and being ready to update all related
> material. How should a retired PSC team act when developers work on the
> project and make it thrive, without their implications? I think it would be
> time for the PSC to resign and acknowledge, the community is de facto lead
> be a new generation of developers. Doing so, the osgeo could organize the
> nomination of  a new PSC, granting the community committers the voting
> rights.
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> > Emmanuel
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [1] https://github.com/mapfish/mapfish/wiki/Community_PSC
> > [2] https://github.com/mapfish/mapfish/wiki/Community_Committers
> > [3] https://github.com/camptocamp/c2cgeoportal/graphs/contributors
> > [4] https://github.com/camptocamp/ngeo/graphs/contributors
> >
> >
> > On Tue, 19 Nov 2019 at 01:02, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Earlier this year we places several osgeo projects that were not
> communicating (or no longer meeting osgeo expectations) into the OSGeo
> community program.
> >>
> >> One project that asked for some more time was mapfish:
> >>
> >> * The mapfish.orghttp://www.mapfish.org/ website uses the old logo and
> documents MapFish 2.2 released in 2016
> >> * The osgeo project page was never filled in
> https://www.osgeo.org/projects/mapfish/ (1)
> >>
> >> The good news is that the the project is very much alive, has a new
> GeoMapFish name, website, code base, and a new development team (indeed I
> am not sure if any current members took part in the incubation process).
> >>
> >> On the bright side Emmanuel and the MapFisk PSC produced a page for the
> AGM (slide 59) which is great and really improves communication.
> >>
> >> My question though is simple - should we remove MapFish as an OSGeo
> project, and invite GeoMapFish to apply to the OSGeo Community program, or
> should we ask this PSC to quick march this project through the incubation
> checklist requirements to preserve continuity?
> >>
> >> Emmanuel would you be able to attend the board meeting to provide an
> update on this project? If you need help setting up osgeo project page we
> are happy to do so on the incubation email list.
> >> --
> >> Jody Garnett
> >>
> >> (1) Wishing to recommend mapfish today and finding this page is what
> promoted this email
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Emmanuel Belo
> > Camptocamp
> >
> > Mon. Tue. Thu. Fri.
> > +41 79 936 46 62
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Board mailing list
> > Board at lists.osgeo.org
> > https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>
-- 
--
Jody Garnett
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