[Incubator] Contributor agreements for Fusion project

[Frank Warmerdam]

Daniel Morissette wrote:
> Incubation committee,
> 
> The Fusion project is in the process of setting up contributor 
> agreements 
> (http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/fusion-dev/2008-August/000121.html). 
> As some of you may be aware, the project is already hosted on OSGeo's 
> Trac and SVN, and plans to go through incubation once it is more mature 
> and organized.
> 
> A question that came up was whether OSGeo could handle the CLAs on 
> behalf of the Fusion project from day one, instead of waiting until it 
> has passed incubation... this would save the step of transferring the 
> CLAs from another entity (likely DM Solutions) to OSGeo once the project 
> has passed incubation.
> 
> The Fusion CLAs are based on the MapGuide/FDO ones which contain wording 
> alluding to the Foundation as the project authority, so the question is 
> not just whether OSGeo can handle the paperwork, but also if it is fine 
> for the Fusion CLAs to make references to OSGeo as its project authority 
> even if it has not passed incubation. See the MapGuide CLA for an 
> example of what I mean:
> http://mapguide.osgeo.org/files/Individual%20Contributor%20Agreement.pdf
> 
> This committee seems to be the best group in OSGeo to make the call on 
> that. If we are not comfortable with that then the alternative is simply 
> to handle CLAs through DM Solutions for now which is not a huge deal... 
> and transfer them to OSGeo if/when Fusion passes incubation... this 
> email is mostly to find out if it would be possible to save one step.

Daniel,

People can assign contributions to OSGeo without OSGeo taking any action,
so there is no harm in this.  As long as Tyler doesn't mind receiving and
filing the agreements I see no harm in this happening without Fusion
actually being in incubation or an official project.

So, my claim would be that all you need is Tyler agreement to manage the
documents which he can do on his own judgement.

I am a bit surprised that the project would pursue contribution agreements
in advance of incubation.

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