[Incubator] New Application: GeoToolkit

[Cameron Shorter]

Geotools as a project has already graduated to be a full OSGeo project.

I'm disappointed to see Geotools fork. While I think I understand the 
reasons behind it, I see a split as a sign of a fragmented community, 
which is the opposite of the strong community criteria we put on 
graduating projects.

It also waters down OSGeo's branding to have 2 projects offering the 
same or very similar functionality.
One of the strengths of OSGeo is that the OSGeo brand helps sponsors and 
integrators select the quality OSGeo projects over others. The more 
projects we support (which do the same thing), the less the value to the 
remaining projects.

That said, I don't think that Geotoolkit should be locked out of the 
graduation process because of the fragmentation, it just makes the 
criteria to pass graduation harder. Of note, Adrian Custer, from the 
Geotoolkit branch was a major force completing the Geotools graduation, 
and knows all too well about the effort involved in the graduation process.

One thing that has been discussed before, and would be very valuable to 
the greater community, and hence to projects, would be a purchasing 
decision tree for the OSGeo projects that are supported. I think this 
would be very useful for Geotools/Geotoolkit too. Under what 
circumstances would you select Geotools? Under what circumstances would 
you select Geotoolkit?

Cameron Shorter, the (final) incubation mentor for Geotools.

Daniel Morissette wrote:
> Daniel Morissette wrote:
>>
>> Um... a fork of an existing OSGeo project applying for graduation. 
>
> Of course I meant "... applying for incubation" and not graduation.
>
> Daniel


-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Systems Architect
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

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