[Incubator] Rasdaman and OSGeo Incubation: Proposed way forward

[Peter Baumann]

Allow me to respectfully disagree.

rasdaman is leading technology due to rigorous science and excellent
engineering. This is what rasdaman users enjoy and what rasdaman developers are
proud of. Independent research shows that rasdaman is much faster than Apache
SPARK and other related technology. Today, rasdaman databases exceed 100 TB in
size in operational setups by leading data centers, and we are going Petabyte now.

Still, OSGeo wants us to replace this "design by innovation" by a "design by
committee" approach governed by a "dictatorship of voting". (Note that the term
"dictatorship" is not brought up by me, but the provocative term has been used
on us first by OSGeo in an intense discussion preceding this mail).

Disclaimer: TL;DR:

Don't get me wrong, the team and myself will always listen to input, and will
discuss it openly. Decision will be solely based on technical merits, and
nothing else. In particular: no majority vote. Yes, this obviously requires
decent hardcore Computer Science skills, and these do not come by vote. Feel
invited to join the party under these conditions, and you will find that we
value genius over committees.

To add more background, rasdaman is now entering its seventh year of incubation
(for comparison: OSGeo has celebrated its 10th anniversary). This gives a hint
that OSGeo's own governance might be worth reinvestigating. BTW, OSGeo has not
passed its own incubation rules and thinks this is not necessary.

The rasdaman team has been working hard to accommodate OSGeo requests, some of
which indeed are useful for software quality, undeniably. However, we cannot
afford any longer to get distracted from innovating rasdaman further, so there
are no resources for waiting a couple of months and then going the next
iteration, like the last 6 years.

A brief summary of this history can be found here (annually updated in some
spare late-night moments): http://rasdaman.org/wiki/OSGeo .

Your annual OSGeo sprints are much acknowledged, Bruce, but we all seem to agree
that this story needs to converge, in one or the other way: either to
fundamentalistically focus on one specific niche setup, or to broaden its
perspective and accept that the world has many colors... is Linux
committee-driven? Drupal? Django? Ruby? Even NASA has tried to explain OSGeo
that their approach does not always fly.

OSGeo has had ample time to come to conclusions, it knows what rasdaman is and
how it works. Let us see whether (and when) OSGeo is able to decide. Therefore,
we will patiently await OSGeo's verdict, accepting whatever its decision may be.

Hope that clarifies,
Peter


On 05/06/2016 02:43 AM, Bruce Bannerman wrote:
> Dear Radaman Community and the OSGeo Incubation Committee,
>
>
> I propose that we suspend a decision on the way forward with Rasdaman
> Incubation for a period of three months.
>
> This will provide time:
>
>   * for all to reflect on incubation discussions events over the last two
>     weeks; and
>
>   * for the Rasdaman Community to discuss and decide on the way forward that
>     they wish to take.
>
>
> Should the Rasdaman Community wish to continue with OSGeo Incubation, then I
> will be happy to continue as OSGeo Mentor for a short period of time to work
> through the Project Governance approach with you. I will also be prepared to
> stand aside, should you prefer an alternate mentor.
>
>
> Should the Rasdaman Community decide that it does not wish to continue with
> OSGeo Incubation, I am sure that you will be encouraged to continue your
> association with OSGeo as an "OSGeo Community Project" [1]. You will be able
> to do this using your current Governance Process.
>
>
> We have come a long way over the last six years. I'm impressed by how well the
> Rasdaman Community has developed and by the processes and the functionality of
> the software developed. Rasdaman has great potential in the future.
>
> It is a credit to you all.
>
>
> Bruce Bannerman
>
> OSGeo Mentor to Rasdaman
>
>
> [1] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Community_Projects
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Incubator mailing list
> Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator

-- 
Dr. Peter Baumann
 - Professor of Computer Science, Jacobs University Bremen
   www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/pbaumann
   mail: p.baumann at jacobs-university.de
   tel: +49-421-200-3178, fax: +49-421-200-493178
 - Executive Director, rasdaman GmbH Bremen (HRB 26793)
   www.rasdaman.com, mail: baumann at rasdaman.com
   tel: 0800-rasdaman, fax: 0800-rasdafax, mobile: +49-173-5837882
"Si forte in alienas manus oberraverit hec peregrina epistola incertis ventis dimissa, sed Deo commendata, precamur ut ei reddatur cui soli destinata, nec preripiat quisquam non sibi parata." (mail disclaimer, AD 1083)


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