DM Solutions spin off

[Daniel Morissette]

Hi Everyone,

I realize this may be a bit off-topic for this list and apologize for 
the noise, but I thought that many of you may be interested in this: DM 
Solutions just announced its intention to spin off a new open source 
technology company that I will be leading. You'll find the full details 
and hopefully answers to most of your questions in the announcement on 
DM Solutions' website at http://www.dmsolutions.ca/news/releases/013006.html

As is explained in the announcement, both DM Solutions and the new 
company will continue to be active contributors to MapServer, so 
MapServer is not losing anything. I and Julien will contribute to 
MapServer as part of the new company, and Assefa and Jeff will still be 
there for DM Solutions, continuing to support and contribute in the 
areas of the software that we have traditionally been working on.

If anything, I am hoping that this change will allow me to have more 
time for MapServer and other open source projects than I have had in the 
last year or so.

I realize that the timing for announcing this may lead people to try to 
read between the lines and speculate on lots of things: is it that Dave 
and I are not getting along together any more? or is this decision 
related to the events surrounding the creation of the foundation or 
Autodesk's involvement in the open source web mapping world? or ??? I 
want to assure you that it's not the case at all. The root of this 
decision is really a personal decision on my part: as DM Solutions is 
growing, my role as vp of DM Solutions is becoming more and more one of 
management and I have less time for technical work, and the new company 
with its smaller team will allow me to come back to where most of my 
strenghts and interests are. This decision has been in the air since 
well before we heard of Autodesk or the foundation, but as you may 
understand it's not something that you can decide overnight.

I'm sure you'll hear more as the plans of the new company start to 
materialize in the next couple of weeks. Please don't hesitate to 
contact me (or Dave) if you have questions about this.

Best Regards,

Daniel
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  Daniel Morissette               dmorissette at dmsolutions.ca
  DM Solutions Group              http://www.dmsolutions.ca/
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