[OSGeo-Discuss] 5 Star OSGeo project maturity rating

[Cameron Shorter]

Jason,
I agree that it is important that any rating system has had a lot of 
thought put behind it, which is why I've suggested using the existing 
OSGeo graduation rating system - which has had input from many of us in 
the OSGeo community.

I do think that Andrea has highlighted a couple of additional points 
which should be rolled into the OSGeo incubation criteria - but until 
that happens, we should use what we have, which is guidelines for 
projects going into incubation (assigned 3 stars), and criteria for 
projects completing graduation (assigned 4 stars).


Bruce Bannerman wrote:
> Jason / Cameron,
>
> >From the potential utiliser / implementer viewpoint:
>
> I’d like to think that any project that has graduated OSGeo Incubation 
> could be considered a quality project with all of the vectors 
> described by Andrea.
>
> This proposed rating system implies that this may not be the case.
>
> Comments?
>
>
> Bruce


Daniel Morissette wrote:
> I'm also not too keen on a star ranking system, especially if it is 
> mostly based on having passed incubation or not.
>
> To me, passing incubation is more an indication of good process 
> management and long term viability than an indication of software 
> quality/robustness and ability to really solve the user's needs. 
> However, a star ranking system makes me think of hotel/restaurant 
> rating and would mislead the user to think that a software with 4 
> stars (because it passed incubation) does a better job than others 
> with 2 or 3 which is not necessarily the case.
>
> If the goal is to denote whether a project has passed incubation or 
> not then let's call the rating that way (which is what we currently do 
> when we differentiate between graduated and in-incubation projects on 
> www.osgeo.org). If we want to create a "project maturity rating" then 
> it will have to take into account several variables as Andrea wrote 
> earlier... and then defining those variables and evaluating each piece 
> of software against them will be quite a task.
>
> In the end, I just wanted to register the fact that I too am worried 
> about the possible side-effects of a poorly handled rating system on 
> our communities.
>
> Daniel
>
>
> Cameron Shorter wrote:
>> On 06/06/10 10:14, Jason Birch wrote:
>>> IMHO getting into rating projects is just asking for trouble, 
>>> infighting, bitterness, and people/projects walking away from OSGeo.
>>>
>>
>> Jason, this is a valid concern with decent founding. However I think 
>> the potential for conflict is not as bad as you may think, and there 
>> is a very strong user community desire for, and value to be gained 
>> from such ratings.
>>
>> 1. We already have a rating system, based upon:
>> * Project has completed incubation
>> * Project is in incubation
>> * Project is not in incubation
>> What I'm suggesting is that we apply a star system to these stages.
>>
>> 2. We already have a criteria for defining this rating, (which may be 
>> refined), which reduces the subjectiveness and hence the potential 
>> for conflict.
>>
>
>


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Cameron Shorter
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