Revised RFC 1 - Need Comments

[Steve Lime]

Just getting caught up on all the comments. From a pure philosophical
point-of-view I'd love
a purely community driven process, however, practically speaking since
we can't define
"the community" I have to agree with Daniel and Frank (for what that's
worth). 

The events  of last fall show that even the existing TSC is not immune
to significant changes 
in direction. I just want to make sure that discussions like that,
should they every occur again
(god, I hope not), are as transparent as possible. With a PSC in place
last year I think things
would have transpired differently.

Steve

>>> Daniel Morissette <dmorissette at MAPGEARS.COM> 10/13/2006 1:43:29 PM
>>>
Frank Warmerdam wrote:

> The point is that without a reasonably strict concept of who counts
as
> community there is a risk of takeover.  This could also easily
happen
> innocently.  Perhaps a big wave of openlayers enthusiasts join and
end
> up installing a PSC that refocuses only on supporting openlayers.
> 

Exactly. And since I have invested several years in this project, and 
have a business built around it and customers relying on MapServer 
continuing to serve their needs, I cannot afford the risk of the
current 
group collectively losing the direction of the project and MapServer 
suddenly becoming a completely new beast.

It's not just about protecting our seats on the TSC (that's just a 
technicality), it's about making sure MapServer keeps its roots and 
identity and cannot be taken over by another group. I need to know that

MapServer will continue to be what it is, other contributors need to 
know that, our customers need to know that and our current user bases 
needed to know that too.

The concept of forking was mentioned earlier in this thread and I agree

that forking is an option: if a group in the community doesn't like the

way the self-perpetuating-cabal drives the project then they can always

go ahead and fork a new branch, shouldn't that be sufficient to protect

the community's interest?

Daniel
-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/