[Incubator] Suggest QGIS For Graduation
Gary Sherman
sherman at mrcc.com
Mon Mar 10 22:26:14 EDT 2008
On Mar 10, 2008, at 2:58 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> The QGIS Social Contract captures the right "vibe", but I'm hesitant
> to vote for QGIS graduation without a process which ensures all
> contributors accept their responsiblities. The acceptance can be an
> email to an archived list (as is the case with Mapbuilder) or more
> legally binding signed paper contract as is the case with many other
> projects.
>
We've added a Contributors Agreement which lays out the expectations
and implements a requirement to publicly agree on the developer
mailing list. You can view it at:
http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ContributorGuidelines
This paged is linked from a number of other pages to ensure that it is
plainly evident to newcomers.
-gary
> Robert Bray wrote:
>> Time for Bob the absentee mentor to chime in. I've been monitoring
>> the QGIS mailing lists for quite a long time (since I signed on as
>> mentor) and I can say from watching interactions on those lists
>> that the QGIS project is healthy, active, and it has a great
>> community. I've also reviewed portions of the code and examined
>> everything called out in the provinence review. Everything looks
>> pretty clean to me. The software itself is stable and the user
>> documentation is quite good.
>>
>> All the necessary governance processes are in place and working,
>> but they are not really documented. It would be good to see these
>> documented especially the process for adding/removing developers,
>> but I would not hold up graduation due to lack of documentation.
>>
>> Cameron's issue below is a valid one, the current QGIS Social
>> Contract is not really a binding agreement. I guess the question I
>> have is how binding does this have to be? I know some of the
>> projects have a more or less legal agreement, e.g. MapGuide, FDO,
>> GeoTools, etc. What's the incubation comitties take on this?
>>
>> If the incubation committee is ok with a non-binding agreement then
>> I am happy to recommend QGIS for graduation.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Bob
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary Sherman" <sherman at mrcc.com>
>> To: "Cameron Shorter" <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
>> Cc: "OSGeo-incubator" <Incubator at lists.osgeo.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 9:28 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Incubator] Suggest QGIS For Graduation
>>
>>
>>> On Mar 5, 2008, at 5:47 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>>>
>>>> Frank or Bob, can you please ensure this email is forwarded
>>>> appropriate members of QGIS team.
>>>>
>>>> Congratulations to the QGIS folks, this project looks to be very
>>>> healthy and will be an excellent addition to the stable of OSGeo
>>>> software.
>>>>
>>>> I've only picked up on one issue.
>>>> I don't think the existing processes are strong enough to ensure
>>>> that proprietary code is kept out of the codebase in future.
>>>>
>>>> I'd like to see either:
>>>> 1. All developers sign a Contributors Agreement noting they agree
>>>> to developer guidelines, or
>>>> 2. Email a public list with the same type of information as the CA.
>>>>
>>>
>>> We vet all new devlopers very closely and the Social Contract
>>> contains a statement about the appropriate license for code. We
>>> can certainly require a response to a "requirements/
>>> responsibilities" email on the QGIS developer list to make sure
>>> there is a public record.
>>>
>>>> The key element of the developer guidelines is "Thou shall only
>>>> commit clean code to the codebase".
>>>>
>>>> I'd like to see a documented process for adding new coders which
>>>> includes asking the new coder to sign up to their responsibilities.
>>>>
>>>> I believe all OSGeo projects have such processes. You can see an
>>>> example from Mapbuilder's processes under the title of
>>>> "Committer" and "Committer Responsiblities" at http://docs.codehaus.org/display/MAP/Contributers+Guide
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Frank Warmerdam wrote:
>>>>> Folks,
>>>>>
>>>>> Ideally Bob Bray as QGIS mentor ought to be doing this, but
>>>>> Gary and I have
>>>>> been having trouble getting a response from him about QGIS
>>>>> incubation, so...
>>>>>
>>>>> I think QGIS is pretty much ready for graduation. The
>>>>> documents are at:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/QGIS_Incubation_Status
>>>>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/QGIS_Provenance_Review
>>>>>
>>>>> As a QGIS developer now, I'm not exactly disinterested, but I
>>>>> think QGIS
>>>>> is an open community with a governance structure in place. The
>>>>> code
>>>>> provenance review found no problems, and in a variety of spot
>>>>> checks myself
>>>>> I don't see any issues.
>>>>>
>>>>> So, consider this a "call for questions and concerns" which will
>>>>> hopefully
>>>>> lead to a motion to graduate within a week or two from either
>>>>> myself or Bob.
>>>>>
>>>>> Best regards,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Cameron Shorter
>>>> Geospatial Systems Architect
>>>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>>>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>>>
>>>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>>>> Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source Solutions
>>>> http://www.lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts.html
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Incubator mailing list
>>>> Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
>>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator
>>>
>>> -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
>>> Gary Sherman
>>> Chair, QGIS Project Steering Committee
>>> -Micro Resources: http://mrcc.com
>>> *Geospatial Hosting
>>> *Web Site Hosting
>>> -Desktop GIS Book:
>>> *http://desktopgisbook.com
>>> "We work virtually everywhere"
>>> -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Incubator mailing list
>>> Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Cameron Shorter
> Geospatial Systems Architect
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
> Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source Solutions
> http://www.lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts.html
>
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Gary Sherman
Chair, QGIS Project Steering Committee
-Micro Resources: http://mrcc.com
*Geospatial Hosting
*Web Site Hosting
-Desktop GIS Book:
*http://desktopgisbook.com
"We work virtually everywhere"
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
More information about the Incubator
mailing list