DMSG Premiere and Ongoing investment in Open Source

[Dave McIlhagga]

Hi everyone,

(apologies for cross-posting)

As many of you may have already heard, we at DM Solutions recently 
launched DMSG Premiere - our commercial support service for MapServer, 
MapGuide and other open source web mapping technologies.

http://www.dmsolutions.ca/premiere/

This announcement has been very well received, however there has been 
some concern and confusion expressed over the implications for our 
continuing support of the community.  Addressing this issue is the 
purpose of this email.

DMSG Premiere is an important step in terms of offering broader support 
for open source technologies for organizations that require the 
insurance that a company will back-up the technology for them. It 
provides an effective means for us to provide corporate support for the 
technology in a similar way that Red Hat and other companies 
successfully do for their respective technologies.

Our belief is that by broadening access to open source web mapping to 
communities less familiar with open source technologies, our ability to 
re-invest in these technologies will in fact increase, not shrink. Our 
on-going interaction with the open source community has been 
instrumental to developing high quality technology and an active user 
base. Neglecting to continue our work with the community would not only 
hurt the technology, it would also hurt our business.

Ultimately of course - this can only be judged by our actions, and not 
words. I wanted to take this opportunity to re-assure the community that 
we believe this is an important step forward for all open source web 
mapping stakeholders, and that we will continue to invest in open source 
technologies and the community, just as we have for the past seven years.

Thanks for your time.

Dave


-- 
Dave McIlhagga
President, DM Solutions Group

http://www.dmsolutions.ca
EMail : dmcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca
Phone : 613-565-5056 x15
Fax : 613-565-0925