[Mapbender-dev] IRC Meeting ...

[Arnulf Christl]

Hi, 
thanks for your input, more inline.

Michael Schulz wrote:
> Hi Devs,
> 
> sorry, couldn't make it to the IRC meeting, but want to add my 2ct some things:
> 
> - telascience mapbender is great. Since Postgres is supported so well
> i have never used MySQL again, so telascience and PG will be really
> great.
> 
> - openlayers integration: this is a topic I think is very interesting.
> So when reading thru the log of last week I found, that the plans seem
> to have changed. No more OL as a replacement for the normal mapframe?
> This seems to be a subject for the next topic:
> 
> - Change Request and Development: I think small change requests and
> enhancements should go directly into trac. There can even be small
> discussions about special matters of that ticket and direct linking to
> versions. For bigger changes (like OL or SLD) I find the workgroup
> pages plus trac tickets (link to versions) a good way. The workgroup
> pages provide a similar overview and detailed information as e.g. the
> MS RFCs. I would not make each point on the development page a
> milestone (not everyone can create milestones), rather only an
> enhancement ticket, that can subsequently be turned into a milestone,
> if it gets enough attraction.

We have two different issues here: 
1. The developing community wants to use Trac to plan future development. 
2. The Mapbender Project (as an entity) fails to communicate future development to its users in a way that would generate interest, sponsorship, etc. 

My point is that we are not going to generate more attraction (address issue #2) if we "hide" future and planned development in Trac (address problem #1) because this technology is not transparent to Mapbender users. Take this as a fact, it will not work. 

But if the development wants to use Trac and sees advantages in doing so then we shoudl go for it.

This still leaves us with problem #2 which has up to date been addressed by myself rather inefficiently. Neither the Development page, "Entwicklungsbörse", nor the "News" section or whatever else we did was able to attract any attention at all. 

So currently we have no one who is capable of communicating this new development to the community. We tried and failed with the Development Wiki page (btw. it even failed to involve the developers, check the history of the page to see that...), the News section is not maintained well, we are not announcing regularly, etc. We are not going to solve this problem here and now but we need to address it if we want more involvement, funding, developers and fun. 

Regards, Arnulf 

> - Protocol of the meeting - hmm, I think an email to the dev-list with
> a link to the log and the topics covered would be enough (since the
> Wiki page chages we would have a history of the topics covered in
> older meetings)
> 
> Ok, next week will be better, so talk to you on monday,
> Cheers, Michael
>