[Aust-NZ] Re: Strategic Investment in Geonetwork Open Source(draft paper)

Tue Jul 15 23:06:52 PDT 2008

IMO:

Cameron, congratulations on taking the initiative with this paper. Well 
done!

I think that Rob has hit the nail on the head with his constructive 
criticism of this paper.

The last two bullet points are particularly important. I don't think that 
we have the model right yet. 

We need to allow for concurrent development activities by a wide range of 
groups within the Geonetwork community.

I was intending to respond within the word document with track-changes, 
however time has moved on and the doc is now in a wiki (Mark was too 
quick).

Comments on the document:

- The quote attributed to me links to a thread that I initiated on 
OSGeo-Discuss in September last year. Is this the thread that 
  was intended? It appears to be linked to several times (in error?)

- As discussed previously on this list, I think that the SDI fundamentals 
section should be excluded, or should be revised 
  and also reference appropriate work.

- pp 5-7, for more background information on using Open Source software in 
Australia see [1], AGIMO's 
  Guide to Open Source Software which has some good (dated) general 
information and [2], which is 
  a summary of a survey also run by AGIMO on the opinon of CIOs on Open 
Source software.

- p13, the title is ambiguous, Assessing ANZLIC's Investment. As I 
understand it, this is in 
  fact an investment by many organisations around Australia and New 
Zealand. 

- p14, I find this proposed structure a little confusing. See also my 
leading comments to this email.

- p15, Can the role of Community Liaison Officer be expanded on? This is 
similar to a proposal that Rob Woodcock and 
  Jeroen Ticheler have both made. Would it be possible for this role to 
handle the entire SISS rather that just GeoNetwork?

- pp16-21, I agree with Rob, two of the most important stakeholders are 
missing, the GeoNetwork Community and the 
  GeoNetwork Project Steering Committee. Also, shouldn't the 
organisation's nominate their own people?

Regards,

Bruce Bannerman

[1] 
http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/guide-to-open-source-software/index.html
[2] 
http://www.agimo.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/65009/Open_Source_Software_Overview_November_2007.pdf

<Robert.Woodcock at csiro.au> 
Sent by: aust-nz-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
30/06/2008 01:35 PM

To
<Aust-NZ at lists.osgeo.org>
cc

Subject
RE: [Aust-NZ] Re: Strategic Investment in Geonetwork Open Source(draft 
paper)

Hi Everyone,

I’ve a few comments on the Strategic Investment in Geonetwork Open 
Source(draft paper) document:
Much of the document is an outline of what constitutes appropriate 
software project management. In that regard it is a useful guide when 
assessing investments, activities and teams for the uninitiated
GeoNetwork stakeholders list is useful in understanding some of the 
interactions occurring. Interestingly though it does not mention the 
GeoNetwork Project Steering Committee? (There is also an error in the 
CSIRO section, the words for the Business Drivers are Rob Woodcock’s 
(mine) not Rob Atkinson’s - just don’t want Rob A to be blamed!)
The Community Liaison Officer would significantly assist development 
contributions (from any participant) in better informing stakeholders and 
in prioritising work (informed decision making) across those organisations 
that choose to participate through this coordination process – noting of 
course that this coordination process is not the GeoNetwork one (that 
isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the objective is to better coordinate 
ANZLIC investments, not take over GeoNetwork)
It is entirely possible, potentially useful, for ANZLIC sponsors to pool 
their resources and form a critical mass development team with appropriate 
project management in order to further their goals with GeoNetwork. – this 
may in fact be all that the document is describing but it isn’t clear to 
me that is the case, as my next point describes, and if it is then how do 
other projects, like NCIRS SISS, interact given they can directly assist 
the ANZLIC objectives if properly informed?
I’m concerned that the document confuses the multiple community objectives 
that make up “GeoNetwork” development, bundling them into a single 
geonetwork activity. I believe it is important that this be understood 
more clearly as it impacts stakeholder expectations – for example, 
expecting a production grade outcome from a project contribution that, 
whilst adding the desired feature, is only resourced and intended to add a 
demonstration feature. More over, I’m concerned that this confusion leads 
to a proposition that “developers can be pooled together under a common 
project and project manager but still answerable to their respective 
organisations”. Whilst that may be possible under a secondment style 
arrangement for resources the ANZLIC sponsors control, that isn’t the type 
of situation that exists in many useful cases. Groups like BlueNet 
previously and NCRIS SISS which are funded to deliver to their 
stakeholders have project management and contractual obligations – they 
can’t second staff to nor be answerable to an Aust/NZ steering committee. 
Indeed, I can’t see those resources being leveraged in a useful form if an 
external Project Manager attempts to manage those projects, it may cause 
conflict. These project types, where willing, can respond to a clear call 
for features or bug fixes etc and/or allow their contributions to be 
leveraged elsewhere (where their contractual terms permit and the 
communication of those development priorities are clear). Indeed, many 
open source project operate effectively on this principle. 

Achieving critical development mass, particularly around quality issues 
and production releases, has been one of the principle objectives of the 
NCIRS SISS project setup. It is unusual in that regard because it isn’t 
focussed on building features for its stakeholders but on tackling a “gap” 
in the current community investments in the spatial services stack that is 
hampering deployment efforts by multiple organisations (including some 
ANZLIC ones) that NCRIS would like to see happen. The NCRIS SISS project 
stakeholders are in fact interested in responding to a clear call for 
features and bug fixes!

The other main objective has been to work towards a “customer” engagement 
model which provides a more informed decision making process – the 
Community Liaison role suggested is one such approach, especially when 
matched with an equivalent developer liaison role so the “pair” can inform 
both up and down the communications pipe. Ben Searle is on the NCRIS SISS 
Project Committee to assist in this regards, though Ben is still keen to 
see this model improved further.

Regards,

Rob
Project Director – Auscope Grid
SISS – Project Manager

Dr Robert Woodcock
CSIRO Exploration & Mining ,
ARRC, 26 Dick Perry Ave, 
Kensington, WA 6151 Australia
Phone +61 8 6436 8780 Fax +61 8 6436 8586

From: aust-nz-bounces at lists.osgeo.org 
[mailto:aust-nz-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of 
Bruce.Bannerman at dpi.vic.gov.au
Sent: Thursday, 26 June 2008 1:57 PM
To: Aust-NZ OSGeo
Subject: Re: [Aust-NZ] Re: Strategic Investment in Geonetwork Open 
Source(draft paper)

IMO: 

Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote on 26/06/2008 09:45:02 
AM:

> >
> > Perhaps we could put this into a wiki to allow other members of the 
> > community to help develop it further.
> Yes, good idea. I planned originally to use a wiki but migrated to word 
> as I find it easier to write in and collate reviews. Once the document 
> has stablized and when I next have a spare few hours I'll move it across 

> (in a week or 2).
> >

OK. 

I intend making some comments / additions. I'll use track changes within 
Word and post my version of the document back to the OSGeo-AustNZ list so 
that we have an audit trail and archive. 

Cheers. 

Bruce Bannerman 

Notice:
This email and any attachments may contain information that is personal, 
confidential,
legally privileged and/or copyright. No part of it should be reproduced, 
adapted or communicated without the prior written consent of the copyright 
owner. 
It is the responsibility of the recipient to check for and remove viruses.
If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender by 
return email, delete it from your system and destroy any copies. You are 
not authorised to use, communicate or rely on the information contained in 
this email.
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

 _______________________________________________
Aust-NZ mailing list
Aust-NZ at lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/aust-nz

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/attachments/20080716/d2e0d949/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2521 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/attachments/20080716/d2e0d949/attachment.jpe>