Autodesk product naming poll

[Allan Doyle]

On Dec 21, 2005, at 17:23, Ken Lord wrote:

> Hi Dave,
>
> I hope you enjoy our rainy westcoast christmas ... first day of winter
> and its 13deg C. Feel free to drop in on us if you are still around in
> January.
>
> I think I need to clarify again,  I really like the idea of the
> mapserver foundation, I can see the benefits of it, and that its time
> has come.
>
> This is however entirely different from blurring the line between
> MapServer and MapGuide for Autodesk's gain.
>
> As Allan put forth, to prove that this isn't just another in the very
> long list of products taken over by Autodesk to eliminate THEIR
> competition, either they must drop the MapServer name, or everything
> coming into the foundation must take the Smurf, errr I mean MapServer
> name regardless of what its purpose is.

If I put that forth, then I've been misunderstood. I don't impute bad  
motives on anyone's part in the naming thing. I think it's good  
motives gone awry. Autodesk wants to do something good. I think  
that's excellent. I also think Dave wants to do something good. Also  
excellent. I just disagree with him on the naming issue.

	Allan

>
> Keeping the same name for the two products is already causing
> confusion with clients, and it will not eliminate competiton between
> the products, it will just hide it at the expense of one side. No
> competition may mean stagnation.
>
> Cheers,
> Ken Lord
> Vancouver BC
>
> On 12/21/05, Dave McIlhagga <dmcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca> wrote:
>> Hi Ken,
>>
>> I hope everything is well in Vancouver these days .. I'll be there
>> myself in about 24 hours for Christmas.
>>
>>
>> I felt compelled to write back about this issue -- because I still  
>> feel
>> very strongly that there are many very good reasons for having a  
>> shared
>> 'MapServer' name with this new web mapping technology.
>>
>> First of all -- there is a perception that this is simply 'Autodesk
>> technology' but it's important to remember that as soon as the
>> technology is in an arm's length body, under LGPL and with copyright
>> assigned, it becomes as much yours, mine, Autodesk's or anyone elses
>> technology. In fact, even less aligned with any one company than
>> MapServer is today!
>>
>> Autodesk then becomes a participant & contributor to open source  
>> as much
>> as our company, private consultants or any other contributing
>> organization is today around MapServer. The Foundation becomes  
>> important
>> in this context to ensure fairness, and balance in how technology
>> continues to be developed for the sake of all stakeholders.
>>
>> And I believe this is just the beginning -- there are sure to be many
>> other organizations discovering that open source web mapping is the
>> platform of choice for the future. We're all going to be working to
>> bring them into the fold.
>>
>>
>> The question you have to really ask is, do we want to grow the  
>> MapServer
>> community to be inclusive of a major new participant, and  
>> hopefully many
>> more in the future? This is a great way to send a message that  
>> MapServer
>> is truly open to everyone.
>>
>>
>> As many have pointed out, MapServer has built up a good reputation  
>> over
>> the years -- but the majority of this good reputation has been within
>> the converted .. I can tell you as someone who does a lot of outreach
>> work to the outside world that everyone knows about Google Maps, some
>> folks know about ESRI and MapInfo, and only the most knowledgeable  
>> about
>> MapServer. We still have a lot of work to do to reach those people
>> outside of our immediate world -- work I do every day, so working
>> together on a common message makes a lot more sense to me than  
>> working
>> apart.
>>
>>
>> well -- that's my pitch. I hope everyone has wonderful holidays  
>> and I'd
>> like to wish you a Happy New year.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Ken Lord wrote:
>>> ... And please do check out the comments.
>>>
>>> So far I seem to be the most adamently against Autodesk taking the
>>> MapServer name ... and I think I give some good reasons.
>>>
>>> To restate what I said in my poll comment, I have already seen a few
>>> potential clients confused over the MapServer / Autodesk issue that
>>> could easily work to Autodesk's favour ... and I don't actually  
>>> spend
>>> much time building mapserver websites, I'm sure the hard core
>>> developers have seen more of this than me.
>>>
>>> I also don't appreciate the misleading messages I've seen in the  
>>> media
>>> regarding Autodesk open sourcing MapServer as if it were their's to
>>> open source.  My less open source aware friends have been giving
>>> Autodesk a lot of undeserved credit because of this lately.
>>>
>>> This may not be directly Autodesk's fault (unless they have let the
>>> media go uncorrected with their misleading articles), but I can  
>>> add to
>>> this that a coworker attended the recent Autodesk conference in
>>> Orlando where the big announcement was made and he came back with  
>>> some
>>> very different ideas on what the origins of MapServer actually was.
>>>
>>> Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Autodesk, I spend most of my  
>>> working
>>> hours using Autodesk products, and without these products I'm not  
>>> sure
>>> what I would have been doing in the last 5 years.
>>>
>>> But they need to be kept under control.  Want another example on a
>>> different topic?
>>>
>>> ... At that same conference, my coworker was shocked to find that
>>> sensitive data from one of our clients was being used as lesson
>>> material in a short-course, without our permission, without even
>>> removing his name or our company's logo from the map.  This was data
>>> sent in confidence to Autodesk to help us overcome an issue with  
>>> using
>>> the software.   The sad thing is that the solution they demonstrated
>>> in the course never was sent to us to fix our problem.  Hopefully no
>>> one else recognized the data, it was for a very important client  
>>> to us
>>> whom we do not want to loose.
>>>
>>> Don't let the Gorilla step on us ... It's welcome in the zoo, but  
>>> not
>>> in the same cage.
>>>
>>> Happy Holidays,
>>> Ken Lord
>>> Vancouver BC
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12/21/05, Tyler Mitchell <tylermitchell at shaw.ca> wrote:
>>>
>>>> At Gary's request, I've posted another poll to the MapServer  
>>>> website to help capture how the community feels about the naming  
>>>> of Autodesk's web mapping product.
>>>>
>>>> Please take the time to login and answer this poll:
>>>> http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/community/polls/autodesk_name/
>>>>
>>>> Tyler
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>

-- 
Allan Doyle
+1.781.433.2695
adoyle at eogeo.org