Kick Out the Jams

[Sean Gillies]

Hi all,

Why that title? Because I like MC5, that's why. Sean Gillies here.  
I'm the lone dissenter from the MapServer technical steering  
committee, and I think it's time I explain why.

I strongly disagreed with the formation of a cabal to discuss the  
future of MapServer, and declined the offer to participate. Signing  
an NDA in order to discuss an open source foundation? I thought this  
was preposterous! My refusal was party because it seemed unnecessary  
and likely to create hard feelings, but also because of ego; I was  
contacted quite late, and it seemed to me at the time that I was  
being asked to sign my name to to an already done deal. Maybe the  
steering committee should be renamed the "MapServer Hubris  
Committee": it's hubris on all sides. Could I have helped prevent the  
Enterprise/Cheetah naming fiasco? I certainly would have opposed it,  
but have no evidence that I would have prevailed if I'd opted in.

I'm grateful to Ed McNierney for piercing through the balloons and  
confetti to try to get to the heart of the matter, and completely  
mortified for all of us that his experience and insight were not used  
as a resource when forming the new foundation. What else can be said  
about this but "WTF!?" That said, I'd like to help make the best of  
it. I'm deeply invested in MapServer, and as it's fate now seems  
rather bound, I want the Foundation to succeed. For my part, I'm  
going to stop beating up on Steve, Dave, Dan, Frank, et al for their  
stunning lack of tact -- on the condition that Dave comes down from  
the clouds a little bit and reigns in his visionary prose ;)

In that same vein, I offer a sincere, yet cautious, welcome to  
Autodesk. The thought of a big industry player being interested in  
MapServer is rather seductive, I must admit, and I'm sure that this  
seduction played a role, for better or worse, in the Foundation  
decision making process. That's something to look out for at the same  
time we give Autodesk and its representatives, developers, and users  
the benefit of doubt. Whether you or not you feel similarly, the true  
intentions of the company will reveal themselves in a short time.

cheers,
Sean

---
Sean Gillies
sgillies at frii dot com
http://zcologia.com/news