[webmap-discuss] OGC Membership for Open Source developers

[Cameron Shorter]

Forwarding Carl's response back to the OSGeo list (as I got the address 
wrong the first time).

My comments inline.

Carl Reed OGC Account wrote:
> Cameron -
> 
> Thank you for the additional thoughts. I think you have provided the 
> initial
> set of requirements for a special level of membership in the OGC.
> 
> The key appears to be the potential to develop reference implementations
> that implement OGC standards that can be made globally available for use by
> anyone, anywhere. I think that this would be a very good thing.

Developers also sometimes like/need to contribute to writing the 
standards too.

If you are worried about loss of membership, you may want to add a 
criteria like:
"Must be a developer with commit access on the following open source 
projects: ..."
You could add to the list as developers apply for membership.

> 
> We are definitely not trying to prevent anyone from implementing
> specifications before they are approved. FYI for this group, all (I mean
> ALL) candidate OGC specifications are released for a 30 day public review.
> This is fairly early in the adoption process but not so early that the spec
> is not fairly mature and well defined. Anyone can go to the
> http://www.opengeospatial.org/specs/?page=requests page and download these
> candidate specs. They are publicly available. Just be aware that, based on
> the comments received during the comment period, the spec could change a 
> bit
> before final approval and formal release by the OGC membership.
> 
> Of interest to me is whether the open source community is receiving the 
> call
> for comments. If not, then we (OGC) need to do a better job of announcing
> the call.

I believe so.  I've subscribed to an OGC email list which sends out 
announcements and I suspect others have done the same.

And as we generally are in contact with OGC members we often hear gossip 
via the grapevine.

> 
> WRT IPR, no matter what sort of a membership level we can define for the OS
> developer, a membership agreement will need to be signed and the individual
> (or organization) will need to abide by OGC IPR. This requirement is not
> unique to just the OGC. Agreement to abide to IPR policy is an integral 
> part
> of every standards organization that I deal with (OASIS, IETF, W3C, ISO,
> ITU, IAI and the list goes on).

Yes, I don't see a problem with a membership agreement.
The key barrier is cost of membership. For an open source developer who 
is not being paid and giving away their time for free, it feels like a 
slap in the face to be asked to pay money to someone who will be 
benefiting from your efforts.

> 
> Regards
> 
> Carl
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cameron Shorter" 
> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
> To: "Carl Reed OGC Account" <creed at opengeospatial.org>
> Cc: <webmap-discuss at mail.osgeo.org>; <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 4:35 PM
> Subject: Re: [webmap-discuss] OGC Membership for Open Source developers
> 
> 
>> Carl,
>> I'm CCing the OSGeo discussion list as there are a number of other open
>> source GIS projects who are likely to have an interest.
>>
>> Open Source developers often are self funded and are not prepared to pay
>> for membership, however they do contribute significant amounts of code.
>>
>> So the goal here is for the developers to get access to OGC documents
>> (like draft specificatons) and in return they will provide code.
>> Membership for an OS developer should be free.  An OS developer could be
>> defined as a developer with write access to the repository of 
>> specified OS
>> projects. We define our roles here:
>> http://docs.codehaus.org/display/MAP/Contributers+Guide
>> You might also want to specify that the developer must be working on a 
>> OGC
>> spec or similar.
>>
>> From an OGC point of view, what are you trying to protect?  IP?
>> Are you trying to prevent specifications being used before they are fully
>> developed?
>>
>>
>> Carl Reed OGC Account wrote:
>>
>>> Cameron -
>>>
>>> Good question and suggestions.
>>>
>>> Question back: How would such a membership be structured? For example, I
>>> am currently working a MOU with the web/3D (X3D) consortium. Membership
>>> is between the organizations. There will be a membership swap. The
>>> agreement will allow key staff of W3D to access OGC member documents and
>>> provide key OGC staff access to in progress X3D documents. Members of 
>>> the
>>> OGC will not have access to members only documents the W3C and
>>> visa-versa.  There are reasons for this approach which have nothing 
>>> to do
>>> about exclusionary or discriminatory behavior.  The primary reasons have
>>> to do with intellectual property, copyright, member benefits, and
>>> potential membership erosion.
>>>
>>> That said, the OGC is looking at providing an individual membership 
>>> level
>>> (like OASIS does) at a reasonable fee.
>>>
>>> SO, we are not opposed to such a liaison relationship. Any thoughts 
>>> would
>>> be appreciated.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> Carl
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cameron Shorter"
>>> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
>>> To: <webmap-discuss at mail.osgeo.org>
>>> Cc: <creed at opengeospatial.org>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 3:01 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [webmap-discuss] zoomlevels in OWSContext?
>>>
>>>
>>>> My employer, ADI Limited, is an OGC Member and there are some other
>>>> developers on the list who are likewise OGC Members.
>>>>
>>>> It would be good if an Open Source project like Mapbuilder could be
>>>> given an OGC member status, which would give developers on that project
>>>> access to the OGC resources they need.
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Cameron Shorter
>> http://cameron.shorter.net
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Cameron Shorter
http://cameron.shorter.net