[Incubator] GeoNetwork incubator status; time to graduate

[Jeroen Ticheler]

Thanks Frank.

On Oct 18, 2007, at 10:29 PM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
>
> Jeroen,
>
> Ideally your next step would be getting your project mentor (Jody) to
> review the status of the project and if satisfied to recommend it for
> graduation.

Yes, should have done that immediately :-)

>
> I skimmed the incubation status and provenance reports, and things  
> seem
> ok.  I would like to have done a few provenance spot checks myself,
> but put that aside since your trac isn't (understandably) linked to
> svn.
>
> My real concern is the PSC/TSC/AdvisoryBoard/BenevolentLeader aspect.
>
> The PSC document:
>
>   http://trac.osgeo.org/geonetwork/wiki/PSC
>
> describes a fairly standard PSC with a fairly fine grained level of
> involvement (ie. When is Vote Required?).  But your description above
> describes your role as closer to "benevolent dictator" with an  
> advisory
> board meeting annually and presumably able to remove you.  Also the  
> role
> of Technical Steering Committee is (as far as I know) undocumented.

Yes, it is an aspect that evolves rather slowly in GeoNetwork.  
Catalogs don't attract as many interested parties compared to pure  
GIS/RS/mapping projects unfortunately. However, I see much  
improvement and more and more involvement from others and am hopeful  
that a transition from "benevolent dictator" to "full PSC" will  
happen in the not to long run. At the same time, that seems something  
that happens only slowly (due to what I just mentioned above :-) ).  
I've several times tried to speed that process up, but it seems  
everybody still feels OK with the current structure.

This been said, it could take a fair bit of time before the  
transition actually takes place. I feel that hampers incubation and  
will make things like the code review etc.. to be outdated again by  
the time we get there. GeoNetwork will keep an incubation spot  
occupied also. Not sure how relevant that is to the incubation  
committee though.

>
> I *feel* that an open governance structure is a fairly key part of
> incubation and so I'd like to see governance for GeoNetwork become
> more settled and "in operation" for a while before I'd be completely
> comfortable with incubation graduation.
>
> I have no problem with a relatively hands off advisory committee and
> a distinct TSC.  I just think the documents need to describe this  
> setup
> fairly clearly and it ought to be allowed to operate for a while  
> (perhaps
> a couple months?) so as to become "institutionalized".
>
> Just my opinion of course...

Sure. I hope that already during the whole incubation period so far  
the project has proven to be open to others influencing and  
contributing to the project. However, I realize that's my biased  
insiders opinion :-)

Thanks again, ciao,
Jeroen
>
> Best regards,
> -- 
> --------------------------------------- 
> +--------------------------------------
> 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    | President OSGeo, http:// 
> osgeo.org
>
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