[OSGeo-Discuss] Proposal to find an alternative to Collabnet

[Krishan Sharma]

On 7/17/06, Gary Lang <gary.lang at autodesk.com> wrote:
>
> Philosophy aside, I have to repeat what I've said in the past, it took
> us no time at all to migrate MapGuide from an internal Perforce server
> and Clarify bug tracking database to CN. It was absolutely painless. And
> I anticipate that moving to something else in 6 months being similarly
> trivial.
>
> I would advocate new projects come aboard OSGeo. They'll be up in a day
> and we'll have more critical mass of activity on the site. We'll all
> move together in 6 months.
>
> Otherwise we'll have 10 different sites. If that isn't a sandbox, I
> confess I don't know what is.
>
> Gary
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jo Walsh [mailto:jo at frot.org]
> Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 12:55 PM
> To: discuss at mail.osgeo.org
> Cc: akelly at collab.net; brian at hyperreal.org
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Proposal to find an alternative to
> Collabnet
>
> dear Cameron, all,
> On Sun, Jul 16, 2006 at 04:49:49AM +1000, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> > Ethically, I'd prefer to see Open Source projects use Open Source
> tools.
>
> Amen, brother! Open Source ideology dictates that application code
> wants to be free. Companies create "added value" by providing managed
> services built on free software. Clients stick around because the
> business relationship improves their lives, not because they're
> "locked in". So I've never understood why the CollabNet codebase is
> not managed on an open source basis; perhaps it would be more
> conducive to client loyalty (given CN's clients are software developers
> with a itch to fix their own problems!) if it were.
>
> > Proposal:
> > =========
> > 1. I propose that Collabnet as it stands is not acceptable to be the
> > OSGeo Platform.
> >
> > 2. As a group we define what we require from a platform.
> > This page is a good start:
> > http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Project_Infrastructure_Migration
>
> I agree that OSGeo needs a "Plan B" not only for the projects which
> are reluctant to migrate, but for those which are already committed,
> so that we can perform a real assessment of what value we are getting
> from CN / what the cost to us is of renewal, ethical considerations
> aside (though those are important and shouldn't be overlooked in a
> quantitative assessment!)
>
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Tools_Spec was my attempt to look at
> this problem from a different angle. There is the 'checklist of tools'
> approach above, and that is invaluable in terms of not missing any
> pieces that every project needs to run well. There are tools that
> individual projects won't want or afford the overhead of, but that a
> foundation can provide collectively ("build and smoke" test farms...)
>
> There are other reasons why CN hasn't  been a good fit for OSGeo,
> where we should be providing more for our members and projects:
>
> - There's a great deal of interlinking / mutual dependence / mutual
> redistribution between different projects - this is a byproduct of
> being a 'stack' - where a prospective OSGeo user needs
> Geotools+Geoserver+Mapbuilder, or GDAL+Mapserver+Mapbender, or
> GDAL+OSSIM+osgPlanet, to build a whole application. What we've seen
> of CollabNet's approach keeps projects in neat rigid sandboxes, and
> that's not good for us - there's always been a lot of cross-project
> developer energy and commitment - the foundation *arises* from that
> and the tools should be reflecting it, not trying to engineer it
> into existence (or failing to...)
>
> - There's a wider focus than on software - in educational resources
> and geodata packaging and distribution which are indispensable to
> getting open source geospatial tools into real peoples' hands. CN
> doesn't provide tools for collaborative documentation management, or
> processing / bandwidth for serious data munging and serving - so
> OSGeo is obliged to look elsewhere for tools and hosting to do this.
>
> There's a System Administration Committee which was set up to look
> after, on a volunteer basis, the systems that OSGeo is getting free
> use of at telascience/SDSU. https://sac.osgeo.org/ The mailing list
> here might be a good place to have a focused discussion about
> what projects really need, and what visionary / next-gen tools the
> foundation could realistically be providing across projects.
>
> Cameron, one reason you "haven't heard a reasonable solution" is that
> it's no-one's direct responsibility to look after this; and not only are
> all of us involved in OSGeo volunteering our time, but we're
> involved *because* we're *already* volunteering on other open source
> and open data projects ;) Personally i find it much easier to be
> reactive (like this ;) ) than proactive (like you :D ).
>
> The Board has been talking about hiring a full-time Executive Director,
> part of whose responsibility would be to oversee / cat-herd the
> process of tools migration / support / 'solutions' what have you.
> But OSGeo needs some sponsorship commitment in order to be able to
> make believeable promises to any potential Executive Director about
> continuing to be given money on a predictable monthly basis. There is a
> Fundraising Committee which is just starting to do its thing now -
> https://fundraising.osgeo.org/ . But of course, not only is everyone
> on the fundraising committee volunteering their time, but they're
> volunteering because ... and it's much easier to be reactive than ...
> and we keep looping around ;)
>
> thanks for the rousing,
>
>
> jo
>
>
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-- 

Excellent response this is what we need.


Thanks & regards,
*********************
With best wishes,
Krishan Sharma, Ph.D. (USA)
www.gisextechnologies.com
Mobile: 987-029-4791

" My Excellence You Can Map"
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