[Incubator] GeoMajas: Recommendation for Acceptance as an Incubation Project

[Paul Spencer]

It is my pleasure to present the GeoMajas (http://geomajas.org) project to the incubation committee for consideration.   It is my hope that you will consider the following and agree that they are ready to be recommended to the board for acceptance as an incubation project.  I cannot remember exactly how this process should proceed at this point.  If possible, I would like to get on the next board agenda (Thursday, 4 Mar) but if the process needs to take longer then we will aim for April.

GeoMajas is a java-based client-server framework for creating web-based spatial applications.  They fill a niche in the current java stack by providing a way to manage and publish spatial data to the web without needing to write HTML and javascript.  They integrate GeoTools and are looking at working with more projects in the java stack.  

The application was filed in trac: http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo/ticket/506

I have volunteered to be their mentor and have been monitoring the project for some time, the project is run by a PSC that operates in a democratic, community oriented way compatible with the goals of OSGeo.

Here is a summary of the project per the incubation evaluation criteria.  Please review it and let me know if there are any questions about the project.

1.  Open source software is already reasonably mature (working quality code).
 
A stable version 1.4.x has been out since before the last FOSS4G. Currently a public API has been laid down, together with a plugin system, and pretty encompassing documentation. The net stable version 1.6 will be the starting point of a project that can guarantee backward scalability.
Also the number of testcases has increased to over 600, and a new test / showcase setup is in the make.
 
2.  Project already has a substantial user community.
 
The user community has started in Belgium, where it is already large and mature. Ever since FOSS4G 2009, this has steadily increased, where they now have people from Autstralia wanting to contribute, and people donating Arabic translations.
Reports are coming in from countries all over the world now (a lot from Italy and Argentina) from people using the software.
 
3.  Project already has a substantial and diverse developer community.
 
The developer community is mainly Geosparc, DFC, BeanPole, FKS, and MadDog.
Currently 9 people have commit access, and commit regularly.
 
4.  Project members are aware of, and implements support for, relevant standards (ie. OGC, etc).
 
At the moment standards such as WMS and WFS are present (via GeoTools). Towards the future they aim to better provide support for the Inspire guidelines, and are looking into ways of working with other projects to achieve this.
 
5.  Project has linkages with existing foundation projects.
 
GeoMajas integrates open source technologies such as Spring, Hibernate Spatial, JTS, and relies directly on GeoTools.  At the moment one of the Geomajas developers is looking into the uDig configuration tools to create Geomajas configurations, and also deegree is a potential candidate for working together, as integration for rendering or service creation (thereby creating an SDI) might be very promising.
 
6.  Project fills a gap related to software that the foundation supports.
 
The gap that Geomajas fills lies in the integrated client-server architecture, where all integration focus lies on the server-side. All data is gathered, managed and rendered on the server. Then uniformly sent to the client. This is why there is no need for OpenLayers integration. OpenLayers works the other way around, doing everything client-side.
 
This server-side focus has the advantage that existing Java projects can easily use their own setups and integrate, or security can be (is already) wired directly into the data management.
 
It gives you the speed and rendering capabilities of a GeoServer (and more), while still presenting a thin client.
 
7.  Project is prepared to develop in an open and collaborative fashion.
 
The project is fully open in its development process, using mailing lists to discuss development options and project direction and making the code fully available through SVN.  The project has a documented management process for community-based decision making.
 
8.  Project has contributions and interest from more than just one company/organization.
 
The developer community is mainly Geosparc, DFC, BeanPole, FKS, and MadDog.
Currently 9 people have commit access, and commit regularly.
There have been contributed translations for spanish and portugese, and this week someone just made the promise to translate to Arabic and Persian.
 
9.  Project is willing to migrate some or all of its infrastructure (code repository, web site, wiki, mailing list, etc) to foundation support infrastructure, and to adopt a website style consistent with the foundation.

A discussion on this very subject has just started on our mailing list. Currently there are 3 mailing lists that are maintained by either Geosparc or Sourceforge. These would be perfect candidates.

As the discussion has only just started, nothing can be said for certain yet.

Cheers

Paul (on behalf of the GeoMajas team)

On 2010-02-26, at 10:04 AM, Paul Spencer wrote:

> Folks,
> 
> can anyone tell me if the GeoMajas project has been officially accepted into OSGeo incubation?  They have applied, I have volunteered as the mentor and I am going through the incubation process right now.  But I can't seem to dig up any reference to them actually be accepted as an incubation project.  I thought that had happened, but if it hasn't what do I need to do to make that happen for them?
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Paul
> 
> __________________________________________
> 
>   Paul Spencer
>   Chief Technology Officer
>   DM Solutions Group Inc
>   http://research.dmsolutions.ca/
> 
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__________________________________________

   Paul Spencer
   Chief Technology Officer
   DM Solutions Group Inc
   http://research.dmsolutions.ca/