Choosing the Choosers

[Bart van den Eijnden]

Hi Paul,

I for one could be comfortable with the situation you sketch.

But another important question which should be posed is: "do (all of) 
the developers want to put so much time and effort into something 
non-technical" ? Some of them might be interested to do that, but others 
might not be.

Best regards,
Bart

Paul Ramsey wrote:

> Mapserverers:
>
> You may have noticed that things have been relatively quiet since the  
> initial Mapserver Foundation open letter, and associated flurry of  
> response.  One of the reasons is that the folks behind the open  
> letter are a little shell shocked and trying to figure out how to  
> move forward in a way that is both inclusive and not hopelessly  
> inefficient.
>
> The big question they are wrestling with is:  Who can make decisions  
> on matters regarding the future of Mapserver?
>
> It is not an easy problem, because among the questions that have to  
> be answered are:
>
> - Should Mapserver join a 'Foundation' at all?
> - If so, under what terms of membership?
> - If so, under what name?
>
> I would put to you, the 'community at large' the proposition that  
> Mapserver already has a good decision making body that has the  
> interests of Mapserver at heart: the Mapserver Technical Steering  
> Committee.  The MTSC can make the final decisions on all of the above  
> questions quite capably providing they:
>
> - Take the temperature of the overall community before making big  
> decisions.
> - Hold their discussions in an open forum so all viewpoints get a  
> hearing.
>
> The MTSC might want to add some advisory members, so they feel that  
> their voting numbers reflect a broader community, and I think that is  
> reasonable too, again, as long as they first put the names out for a  
> public hearing and make sure there are no substantive objections to  
> their choices.
>
> So, I put the question to you, do you feel comfortable with the MTSC  
> making some 'big decisions' for Mapserver over the next few months,  
> providing that they make their decisions within an open framework of  
> discussion?
>
> For the record, the current members of the MTSC are: Steve Lime  
> (Chair), Daniel Morissette, Frank Warmerdam, Sean Gilles, Assefa  
> Yewondwossen, Howard Butler and Perry Nacionales.
>
> Paul
>
>


-- 
+------------------------+
| Bart van den Eijnden   |
| OSGIS, Open Source GIS |
| http://www.osgis.nl    |
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