[gdal-dev] Call for discussion on RFC 79: Listing of Service Providers on GDAL website

[Sean Gillies]

Hi Jukka,

On Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 12:20 AM jratike80 <
jukka.rahkonen at maanmittauslaitos.fi> wrote:

> GDAL - Dev mailing list wrote
> > Hi Even,
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 2:56 AM Even Rouault <
>
> > even.rouault@
>
> > >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> Please find https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/pull/3473 which proposes to
> >> list
> >> service providers offering GDAL related services on the GDAL website. As
> >> mentioned in the RFC, this is a straightfoward port of the equivalent
> >> adopted
> >> RFC of the Mapserver project.
> >>
> >> Even
> >>
> >
> > I'd like to hear more about the Mapserver project service provider list.
> > Does it work? Is it kept up to date or does it get stale? Does the
> > community find that it effectively steers $$ to consultants that fix bugs
> > and maintain the project? With the difference in image/logo sizes, is the
> > intent to make this look a bit like a conference sponsor page?
> >
> > --
> > Sean Gillies
>
>
> Hi,
>
> Maybe the number of new potential customers searching for consultants to do
> Mapserver development is not so huge at the moment and the old ones know
> their contacts already. However, I feel that the service provider list does
> work for the Geoserver project. Probably mostly not so that users start by
> browsing the list and pick a contractor. It is rather so that core
> Geoserver
> developers know that often there is a minimal chance that some bug will be
> fixed or some feature request will be implemented just because there is an
> open ticket about that. Then they can inform the user about the reasonable
> alternatives like in this example that I picked from a mailing list:
>
> "That does not mean we cannot work around a deficiency in a rogue server,
> but be prepared to issue your PR or fund development though commercial
> services: http://geoserver.org/support/"
>
> For my mind that is also fair for the users and gives more hope than the
> comment on the OSSIM site, that is otherwise my absolute favorite:
>
> "We encourage users to use the software as-is or become an active
> contributor."
>
> -Jukka Rahkonen-
>

Thanks for the explanation. I agree that we can't fairly tell new people
that they may have to pay for help without showing them who they may hire.

-- 
Sean Gillies
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