MapServer Foundation - Open Letter

[Dejan Gambin]

Congratulations to all the mapserver developers from me too! It is really a
great news....

dejan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: UMN MapServer Users List 
> [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU] On Behalf Of Emil Zegers
> Sent: Monday, November 28, 2005 4:08 PM
> To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
> Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] MapServer Foundation - Open Letter
> 
> 
> Congratulations all with this remarkable step ahead.
> 
> Looks like MapServer is getting even more mature very quick.
> 
> Also looking forward to see proposals for the new logo :-)
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Emil Zegers
> 
> 
> ----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----
> Van: Steve Lime <steve.lime at DNR.STATE.MN.US>
> Datum: maandag, november 28, 2005 2:37 pm
> Onderwerp: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] MapServer Foundation - Open Letter
> 
> > An Open Letter to the MapServer Open Source Web Mapping Community
> > 
> > November 28, 2005
> > 
> > Greetings MapServer community,
> > 
> > We are pleased to share with you some exciting news about the
> > future of open source web mapping.
> > 
> > Over the past few years MapServer adoption has grown ten-fold and
> > has become the web mapping platform of choice for many businesses, 
> > government agencies, nonprofit groups and individuals. The 
> > MapServer developers have added powerful new features. The 
> > community has enjoyed three incredible conferences and continues 
> > to support each other and enhance the community.
> > 
> > We want to ensure that this success and momentum continues for the
> > MapServer product and community. MapServer continues to run well 
> > in diverse environments and its rich set of features play an 
> > indispensable role in many organizations. More than ever, we are 
> > committed to improving MapServer and providing exceptional value 
> > to the community.
> > 
> > To this end, we take this opportunity to share two bits of news:
> > the creation of the MapServer Foundation and welcoming the 
> > addition of Autodesk's next-generation web mapping platform 
> > (previously known as Tux) as open source into the foundation.
> > 
> > MapServer Foundation
> > 
> > We are delighted to announce the creation of the MapServer
> > Foundation (mapserverfoundation.org). The foundation is a 
> > nonprofit organization whose goal is to provide a supportive 
> > framework for open, collaborative development of geospatial 
> > software. Several groups and individuals are collaborating to help 
> > launch and sponsor the new foundation. Financial support from 
> > Autodesk will allow us to get the foundation up and running. In 
> > this letter, we present some ideas of how we think the foundation 
> > can help the community, but these ideas need broader discussion 
> > and debate within the community.
> > 
> > We looked to other successful open source movements, such as
> > Apache, to see how our community could benefit from the creation 
> > of an independent foundation. It is clear that the time has come 
> > to create a formal infrastructure to help further support and 
> > promote the professional open source web mapping development 
> > environments and communities. While initially focused on web 
> > mapping projects, we hope the foundation will adopt other open 
> > source geospatial projects that need a home.
> > 
> > Forming the foundation is only the beginning, as we now seek
> > community involvement and participation. The foundation will have 
> > a governance model that allows it to be run by a Board of 
> > Directors that represents the community. How it is ultimately 
> > going to be run is up to the members of the community. The 
> > foundation will also have a set of bylaws that provide structure 
> > and can be amended through a community voting process.
> > 
> > Role of the foundation
> > 
> > The first priority for the foundation is to engage the broader
> > MapServer community. Members of the community are encouraged to 
> > join and get involved. Consider this letter as your invitation to 
> > participate. The community web site is the place where you, as a 
> > user and participant in the community, can follow and contribute 
> > to the development of the MapServer Foundation family of projects.
> > 
> > The primary responsibilities of the foundation may include:
> > 
> >    * Support code repository and other project infrastructure
> >    * Formalized process for decision-making (e.g. where to host
> > the next conference)
> >    * Legal protection for the source code and developers of the 
> > software    * Paying for development work on minor improvements of 
> > the platform
> >    * Acting as a central repository for marketing, branding and 
> > professional image development of the product
> >    * Providing process for mitigating disputes
> >    * Financial support for advocacy, sponsorship, community 
> > events and conferences
> > 
> > Many of these community-related functions have been overseen in an
> > ad-hoc manner or deferred to the University of Minnesota or other 
> > organizations in the past. The foundation will streamline the 
> > coordination of legal, administrative and governance efforts.
> > 
> > As MapServer will now be officially managed by the foundation, it
> > no longer makes sense to call it UMN MapServer. Product branding 
> > is also becoming more important and this is a good opportunity to 
> > introduce a more visual name for the product. We propose calling 
> > it MapServer Cheetah. This presents a fast and agile image that 
> > suits the product well and will help differentiate it from other 
> > MapServer products.
> > 
> > MapServer Cheetah & MapServer Enterprise
> > 
> > We are also very excited about Autodesk's decision to release
> > their next generation web mapping platform into the open source 
> > community through the MapServer Foundation. This adds further 
> > legitimacy to our open source development platform. Their product 
> > will be named MapServer Enterprise and is the successor to 
> > Autodesk MapGuide but built on an entirely new architecture.
> > 
> > MapServer Enterprise and MapServer Cheetah will be run as two
> > separate but parallel projects. There are no plans to merge them 
> > into one but we aim to share technologies between the two projects 
> > wherever possible. We also hope to provide utilities that allow 
> > the community to easily use one or both platforms.
> > 
> > MapServer Enterprise will be licensed using the OSI-approved GNU
> > Lesser General Public License (LGPL). MapServer Cheetah will 
> > continue to be licensed under an MIT-style open source license. 
> > Autodesk is eager to participate in an open and transparent 
> > development process driven by independent guidance from the 
> > community. We encourage you to check out MapServer Enterprise, 
> > which is available today on the community web site.
> > 
> > We are proud to be part of this community and we hope you will
> > join us in establishing the MapServer Foundation. For more 
> > information on how to get involved, please visit the community 
> > site at: mapserverfoundation.org and join the mailing list 
> > discussions.
> > Sincerely,
> > 
> > Steve Lime, Chair, MapServer Technical Steering Committee (MTSC) 
> > Yewondwossen Assefa, MTSC Member Howard Butler, MTSC Member
> > Daniel Morissette, MTSC Member
> > Perry Nacionales, MTSC Member
> > Frank Warmerdam, MTSC Member
> > Tom Burk, University of Minnesota
> > David McIlhagga, DM Solutions Group
> > Tyler Mitchell
> > Claude Philipona, Camptocamp SA and FOSS4G 2006 organizing committee
> > Gary Lang, Autodesk
> > 
>