[Live-demo] Retire MapTiler from OSGeo-Live

Mon Feb 9 06:57:48 PST 2015

All,

I have a different take on all of this project naming.  I've always been under the belief that if you put something out as open source, then it's out there name and all, and that's it (regardless of what the legalese might suggest).  It just seems like this is the courteous way to contribute to the community.  While there are other interpretations of trademarking, I always thought of it as a way of keeping control of the name so others couldn't hijack it for other projects, and not so I had exclusive right to do so at a time of my choosing.  I don't think that just because it's a single person or a group that it should be permissible.  It needs to be one standard for all.  Maybe this is used as a lesson learned in this situation, but I would hate to have to put yet more text into place to describe this type of thing as an incubation step.

Looking at this from the community perspective it would be more painful for the community to rebrand, and with few if any interested in this prospect I don't see that the community should be tasked with the process.  If someone comes forward to do it, well, that's fine.  The short of this is that if it works, and it's relatively painless for the OSGeo-Live to keep it on the distribution, then leave it there.  Brand it as still working but end of life or something.  It does sound like there is still some use of the package, and the emphasis from  OSGeo seems to be put on actively developed projects, vs just plain old working, it seems like the "working" aspect should play into things more.

Removing it from service seems wrong while it still works, even without a dedicated development group.  There is also the question of older versions (and users) on older distros of Live-dvd.  Since I assume these are free for use still, than the same goes for the current version on OSGeo Live.  If at some point there is renewed desire to develop then the question of naming could be revisited, but I still think once it's out there in the wild it's out there in the wild, and that's it.

Ok, said my piece.  :c)

Bobb

-----Original Message-----
From: live-demo-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:live-demo-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Johan Van de Wauw
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2015 3:46 AM
To: live-demo
Cc: Klokan Petr Přidal
Subject: Re: [Live-demo] Retire MapTiler from OSGeo-Live

Hi all,

First of all I would like to thank Petr for his work on Maptiler. He has actually spent a lot of unpaid time to develop a tool which is useful for many users.
Earning a living from open-source is hard - as most people who have tried will be able to tell you.

Second I would like to point out that a project that has many users and little contributors is not necessarily unsuccessful.  If your tool is working well, it may not scratch a developers itch[1].

Anyway, it seems that by retiring from OsGeo live you did hit many developers itch, so it seems this may actually be a rebirth of the project.

I think that the request of Petr is fair: the code remains free (which it should, because there can be many derived works), but he just requests not to use the name and logo. This leaves room for other developers to jump in and create a new version. Yesterday on IRC, I proposed the name "IceTiler" as an alternative, based on the rebranding done by debian for many mozilla projects [2]. Other suggestions are welcome :-)

Taking all into account I'm +1 on removing this project from OsGeo live in the current form, but I think we could have "IceTiler" in a next release if there is sufficient interest.

Kind Regards,
Johan

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation_software_rebranded_by_the_Debian_project
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