Proposal to add Steve Woodbridge to the TSC

[Frank Warmerdam]

Daniel Morissette wrote:
> I am a bit hesitant with this proposal. Please don't get me wrong, I 
> have no problem with Steve personally, but so far all members of the TSC 
> were contributors in term of source code, documentation, website or 
> other tangible contributions.
> 
> By adding Steve, we would open the door to TSC members who have been 
> contributing mostly in terms of user support or comments via the lists. 

Daniel,

This is a reasonable issue to raise.

I was quick to +1 mainly because I foresee the need for what was a technical
steering committee to expand into a project steering committee as part of
the OSGeo incubation process.  I see SteveW as technically strong on
MapServer, but also bringing a more user-community oriented point of view to
the committee.

I would add that I consider user support on the mailing list at a similar
level of tangibility as writing documentation.   SteveW has also been quite
active in reporting and commenting on bugs in Bugzilla.

I do also see folks like TomK, and Bart as reasonable candidates.  From my
point of view criteria would include a good understanding of MapServer,
a sustained history of contribution and participation and willingness to
take on responsibility.

All things considered, it might have been a bit better to broaden the mandate
of the committee and then, with a bit of a plan, expand it's membership.  But
in any event, I don't think we can go wrong with SteveW as long as he is
interested and willing to commit.

We might also consider a future where the MapServer PSC (ie. Project Steering
Committee) is a superset of the MapServer TSC (Technical Steering Committee)
which would remain focused narrowly on code changes.  However, I'm not
personally too fond of that distinction.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org