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

[Alex Mandel]

On 07/13/2010 04:28 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> 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.
> 
> 

What I'm getting at is are we like other labeling systems?
Example: Organic, FSC (Forest Sustainabitily Council), Fair Trade
If we are, maybe "OSGeo Healthy Software" or "Sustainable Software"
would be a better term to describe Graduation.

Or are we more like Time's magazine top 10 geospatial of the year,
Screen Actors Guild Awards, where a list of possibilities is shrunk down
to just the best. "OSGeo TopPicks"

Or maybe like an Electricians Union, you apprentice with us and then we
certify you as qualified to work. "OSGeo Certified"

Depending on how OSGeo considers it's system would help to dictate how
we market the OSGeo project concept to people.

I think this is a big question, that the Foundation will need to
address, I don't think the LiveDVD team should make that determination.


Calling a non-osgeo "(established)" based on above is actually a
disincentive for them to ever bother with incubation since it will be a
stamp saying they are equivalent without doing the process, I fear it
will weaken the brand. It brings up the bigger question: are we trying
to encourage more projects to join OSGeo? If we aren't then it will be
hard to be the center of FOSS4G...
See the dilemmna, by our own self interest OSGeo needs to rank non-OSGeo
products as not being the same, no matter how mature they are they still
haven't done the OSGeo process, to do otherwise is contrary to the
branding. (I realize this borders on elitism, hence the need for a very
open door - OSGeo Labs)

Thanks,
Alex