[OSGeo-Discuss] Are there any thoughts on how organisations canwork with OSGeo projects?

[Frank Warmerdam]

On 9/27/07, Bruce.Bannerman at dpi.vic.gov.au
<Bruce.Bannerman at dpi.vic.gov.au> wrote:
>  > - Avoid giving the impression that you are out to hijack control of
>  > the project.
>
> This is an excellent point. I would not like to see this occur. However it
> is a real danger that any OS project could face if enough developers with a
> specific agenda get involved.
>
> I would hope that OSGeo as an umbrella organisation would have a part to
> play to stamp out such undesirable activity. Does OSGeo have a redress
> process that can be used in such cases?

Bruce,

OSGeo endevours to have project governance in place
by the end of incubation that will:

1) Ensure that a project steering committee of some sort is
in charge of the project and can manage (make decisions)
on when and how to integrate new contributions.  This can be
used to avoid a flurry of new contributions derailing the project.

2) Ensure that new contributors who prove themselves
can achieve some commensurate degree of influence on
the project (as committers or PSC members).  For instance,
an organization that makes a major commitment to contributing
to a project should be able to have some input and influence on
the project.

If OSGeo judges a project steering committee to be seriously
"off the rails" it retains the right to reconstitute the steering
committee.  This is generally a "worse case" sanction and of
course - because the code is open source - any injured party
can just take the code base and fork if they feel it is appropriate.

Cameron writes:
> However I think the ground is ripe for a meta-project which aggregates
> all the OSGeo projects into one. Ideally, a one click install for
> multiple OSGeo packages.

I could not agree more, though I must confess I have struggled over the
least 20 months or so to work out how to launch such an effort in an
effective way.

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    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent