[Live-demo] Alternative to describing maturity with stars?

[Cameron Shorter]

On 12/07/10 16:25, Hamish wrote:
> * *Cameron wrote:
>
>     We could specify maturity as a string, of maturity levels, with
>     the current maturity in bold, like:
>
>     *Maturity:* (/mature/ | **established** | /stable/ | /beta/)
>
>     This still helps users distinguish between projects, without stars.
>     Would that address people's concerns?
>
> Sounds good to me (although I don't really see the need to list the 
> unused words; seems obvious).
>
> I just couldn't see giving a project like GMT with 1000s of spottings 
> in journals like Science and Nature a 2/5 == "stable" star rating and 
> not have someone in the audience saying 'wtf?' ..
>
> what would the difference between "mature" and "established" be? how 
> about vs .stable?
>

Hamish,
We could provide a hyperlink to a description of the maturity terms, 
which would contain something link:

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing_Artefacts#Maturity_Rating

A 5 star rating system to qualify the how established a project is. 
Rating is to be broken down as follows:

    * (mature): Project has passed osgeo incubation as per:
      http://www.osgeo.org/incubator/process/project_graduation_checklist.html

    * (established): Project has Stable Software, a Stable community, is
      deployed in production systems, and is ready to pass criteria to
      enter incubation, as per:
      http://www.osgeo.org/incubator/process/evaluation.html
    * (stable): Project has Stable Software.
          o Project produces periodic releases of stable software which
            is used in production systems.
    * (beta): Project has Beta software.


Alex,
While I'd prefer to use the words "graduated" and "in incubation", I've 
found these words to be completely useless at OSGeo booths when talking 
to newbies. Most don't know what OSGeo is, and if they do, they have no 
idea what the incubation process is and what it means. Hence the move to 
mature/established/stable/beta. Which I agree is only slightly better, 
but I can' think of better words, and I'm not getting much support for 
use of a star rating system.

-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Director
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

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