[Incubator] GeoMajas Graduation Recommendation

[Cameron Shorter]

Pieter,
I mirror Franks sentiments with regards to having balanced control of 
the project.
I have seen in a number of different projects where all contributors 
from one company usually vote as a block, which is occasionally contrary 
to the desires of other developers. You might not have seen this yet 
possibly for a couple of reasons:
1. External developers don't feel a sense of ownership of the project 
yet, and hence are respectfully stepping back from difficult decisions.
2. You have not attracted core developers to your project yet, possibly 
because potential core developers don't feel like they are likely to be 
able to match GeoSparc's current moral ownership of the project.
3. ...

If you are to build an external community around the project, I suggest 
working toward loosing GeoSparc's real and perceived control of the 
project. (As Frank mentioned earlier, GeoSparc's ownership of the 
codebase contributes to GeoSparc's perceived control of the project).

What I'm suggesting will take time, maybe years, in order to attract a 
team of external core developers, so while I see a lack of external 
control as a detraction to the project, I don't see it as a blocker to 
graduation.

On 12/10/10 23:29, Pieter De Graef wrote:
>  The funny thing is that Geosparc's business plan is entirely based on 
> a properly balanced open source project. A good democratic community 
> process is in Geosparc's best interest, as it can give more assurances 
> that the needs of the many are met. This in turn should result in more 
> opportunities for Geosparc (and other companies using Geomajas).
>
>
> Op 12/10/2010 14:16, Frank Warmerdam schreef:
>> Pieter De Graef wrote:
>>>  Thanks Frank,
>>>
>>> I'm very pleased to hear you say that.
>>> In regard to the PSC, I have been thinking about simply inviting 
>>> someone with Open Source experience (from OSGeo?) to help out in 
>>> determining the general direction....but I'm not sure yet if that's 
>>> a good idea.
>>
>> Pieter,
>>
>> Well, with luck Paul might agree to stay on your mailing list and 
>> provide
>> some advice from time to time.  I'd suggest not actually adding someone
>> to your PSC who isn't fairly committed to your project.  But (in my
>> opinion) it would be good to have an outside serious user of your 
>> project
>> on the PSC to represent user community needs even if they aren't 
>> actually
>> a developer.
>>
>> At some point, when there are more good outside candidates for the PSC
>> you might even having one or more inside folks step down to help
>> rebalance things.
>>
>> The key, in my mind, is to eventually provide assurance to the 
>> contributor
>> and user community that the project is able to act in ways that are not
>> entirely tied to the business wishes of Geosparc.
>>
>> Best regards,
>


-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Director
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Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

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