[OSGeo-Discuss] [Incubator] Should OSGeo accept "benevolent dictator" projects into OSGeo?

[Even Rouault]

Le mercredi 04 mai 2016 20:39:30, Paolo Corti a écrit :
> > I tend to agree with Patrick's position. I think what matters in the end
> > is the license the code is released, as long as forking is allowed,
> > whether is a committee or a single person taking decisions about
> > developing may lead or may not to a successful project according to
> > several factors, one being the leader, but also the quality of the
> > product, the competitors on the market and so on.. there are so many
> > variables involved, that excluding a project only based on that seems to
> > me a little shortsighted (no offense intended). Also, wording is
> > important! no one loves dictators!! But everyone love people who take
> > responsibility and accountability for their job.
> 
> Totally agree with this. Licenses is what really matters in my opinion as
> well. 

I think we have to keep in mind that software and project are not completely 
equivalent and that the related topics as well :

License <--> Software
Governance <--> Project

OSGeo projects are ... projects, not just software, so it is natural that the 
way they are governed is examined through incumbation. Otherwise why would the 
authors of a software go through OSGeo incubation ? If they are just 
interested in the open source thing, they can just push their code to one of 
the code hosting services.

The right of forking is essential, but what OSGeo wants for its projects is to 
limit the risk of forking as much as possible (that's a risk for users, as it 
splits the developer community and cause an uncertainty whether the original 
or the forked project will be the one to "win"). And a clear governance can be 
a factor to limit that (although not a guarantee).


> And I agree wording could be improved, but now this is a long term
> definition and it needs to be accepted.
> Also note that most of OSGeo projects would not exists if they were
> not using underlying software from projects generated with a BDFL
> model.
> p

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