[Qgis-psc] Boundless Report to QGIS PSC

Wed Apr 27 18:26:19 PDT 2016

Hey Larry and Boundless,

Great work! Nice to see this level of transparency and openness.  I think
this is all just growing pains and it's nice to see both sides open in
communication and no one is starting a name calling war like a lot of
others project tend to dissolve into once this stuff comes up.

Regards,
Nathan

On Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 11:19 AM, Larry Shaffer <lshaffer at boundlessgeo.com>
wrote:

> From: Boundless Spatial http://boundlessgeo.com
> To: QGIS Project Steering Committee
> http://www.qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/governance/
> April 27, 2016
>
> Hello QGIS PSC,
>
> Recently there have been misstatements from our marketing department
> regarding the QGIS distribution Boundless packages, causing understandable
> concern and objection from several of the QGIS developers. Once contacted
> by the PSC, the Boundless team discussed at length planned steps to not
> only remedy those misstatements, but to also ensure more communications
> regarding Boundless software releases are clear and respective to the
> community’s work. While formulating a plan, we read Tim Sutton’s email on a
> draft blog article about enterprises collaborating with QGIS and it helped
> confirm several areas in our processes which need improvement.
>
> In the spirit of open and constructive discussion, below is an internal
> review by Boundless to honestly assess our actions and contributions in
> relation to the sections Tim outlined in his blog post:
>
>
> http://blog.qgis.org/2016/04/23/promoting-and-using-qgis-for-the-enterprise/
>
> Summary of our results (in report card format), with discussion following:
> * Respect the license: A
> * Don't present your work as our work: A
> * Don't present our work as your work: C-
> * Friends don't fork: A
> * Don't rebrand: B
> * Integrate your team with the QGIS community: B+
> * Integrate your work with the QGIS code base: B+
> * Keep us in the loop: B
> * Don't only contribute code: C
>
>
> *Respect the license* A
>
> Boundless does not disrespect the QGIS GPL2+ license in any way. We are
> now in the midst reviewing of our exposure of licenses to all underlying
> software, open-source or otherwise, to increase awareness to users.
>
> Concerning Boundless contributions based upon QGIS code bases, one needs
> to look no further than all of the public code repositories for Boundless
> plugins and the detailed QEP for the new QGIS authentication system crafted
> by Boundless:
>
> https://github.com/boundlessgeo?query=qgis
> https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Enhancement-Proposals/issues/35
>
> Boundless does have a few QGIS-related private code repositories, though
> these are for build scripts and plugins under in-house development.
>
>
> *Don't present your work as our work* A
>
> Boundless has not presented our work as the work of the QGIS community in
> our findings. Please let us know if you find any instance to the contrary.
>
>
> *Don't present our work as your work* C-
>
> Obviously, Boundless needs to improve on this. We are currently running an
> audit of all Boundless website, documentation, and installer text and will
> correct any unclear or incorrect statements. The QGIS team of developers at
> Boundless is now directly involved in appropriate parts of marketing for a
> release and will review such text in the future.
>
> Because Boundless support and software offerings are delivered through a
> website registration form, this has led to a few concerns and uncertainty
> around the Boundless offering.  There have been several statements that
> Boundless installer packages containing QGIS are not different than the
> official packages and that Boundless is somehow fishing for marketing data
> prior to sending the user to the official downloads at qgis.org. This is
> not the case.
>
> Boundless does offer installers, separate from the official QGIS packages,
> which provide added value to our supported customers. Boundless clearly
> needs to improve in describing the difference between Boundless packages
> that contains QGIS and the official QGIS packages to potential users before
> they download, which we will remedy immediately in future communications.
>
>
> *Friends don't fork* A
>
> Boundless does maintain a graphically branded, non-divergent fork of QGIS
> for the purpose of incorporating builds into Boundless installers for
> several reasons, including some that require Boundless to be the origin of
> the built software.
>
> Base fork:
> https://github.com/boundlessgeo/QGIS
> Current LTR branch (what is currently released in Boundless distribution):
> https://github.com/boundlessgeo/QGIS/tree/release-2_14-boundless
>
> Any non-branding edits to those branches (all commits prefaced with
> [boundless]) are merely to fix support issues for Boundless customers or to
> allow Boundless-supported customers to work with external Boundless
> resources and content. Changes to the core QGIS code are always avoided
> unless absolutely required.
>
> Maintaining a divergent fork of QGIS is something Boundless has no
> interest in developing or maintaining.
>
>
> *Don't rebrand* B
>
> Rebranding presents a conundrum for Boundless since maintaining and
> incorporating a distribution of QGIS (or other open source GUI software)
> within Boundless installers is a key ingredient to QGIS adoption within
> large enterprise deployments. If the distributed version in Boundless
> installers is not rebranded, users may become confused as to its origin or
> that it is indeed a different package than one procured from official QGIS
> distribution channels. This could lead to increased support issues for both
> Boundless and the QGIS project. Thus, Boundless generally rebrands all
> software where this might be of concern.
>
> This does equate to light graphical rebranding, usually just the splash
> screen and executable’s icon. The Boundless QGIS team has resisted any
> attempt to change application strings, as we are all well versed in the
> need to keep localization intact as well as keep the user’s QGIS experience
> as close as possible to that of official releases. It is also paramount to
> Boundless that QGIS users of its distribution can reference online official
> and community documentation for the core application without hinderance
> from rebranding.
>
>
> *Integrate your team with the QGIS community* B+
>
> Boundless currently has a QGIS team of six developers who have backgrounds
> of contributing to the QGIS project prior to working at Boundless. Most of
> those developers are core committers to the QGIS project. All have long
> track records of volunteering with and helping the QGIS community. Like
> other initially development-oriented enterprises, Boundless could have done
> a better job of integrating with the QGIS documentation team. We anticipate
> contributing considerably more documentation in the near future.
>
> As we continue to grow the QGIS team here at Boundless, we will ensure
> community integration is articulated to new members.
>
>
> *Integrate your work with the QGIS code base* B+
>
> Other than customized solutions Boundless develops for some customers,
> there is practically no coding done on QGIS core code base or plugins by
> the Boundless QGIS team that does not also benefit Boundless and its
> customers, as well as the community, by being contributed back to the QGIS
> project.
>
> Many Boundless customers who contract for development *require* work be
> contributed back to the community once completed. This is essentially an
> insurance policy on the work, since many are looking to replace
> vendor-locked commercial GIS software with open-source and need assurances
> paid development does not become vendor-locked as well. Similarly,
> Boundless recommends to customers that contracted development be
> contributed back to the community. Beyond the benefit to everyone that
> community contributions provide, Boundless has no interest in maintaining a
> divergent QGIS fork, let alone one specific to a particular customer.
>
> With regards to non-QGIS-core plugins, much of the added value Boundless
> brings to its QGIS-based packages that is useful for supported customers
> stems from plugins. The “publicly release often and early” open-source
> idiom is not always the best approach for early development and releases,
> albeit the code is often publicly available. Once a plugin has been shown
> to be very stable and useful to a broader base of users than Boundless
> customers, it is considered for a broader public release, like the
> GeoServer Explorer plugin (based on initial work of the OpenGeo Explorer
> Boundless-released plugin), which is now in the QGIS official plugin
> repository.
>
>
> *Keep us in the loop* B
>
> Our QGIS work is often in public code repositories and we have also
> utilized the QEP process for large contributions, e.g. new authentication
> system. We had marginal success using the QEP process, albeit probably due
> to the earlier workflow of the process and some misunderstanding by the
> Boundless team on how the process works. Commercially speaking, creating
> added value to QGIS, whether by way of plugins or core features, can be a
> somewhat private affair until ready to release. There is room for Boundless
> to improve communication here.
>
>
> *Don't only contribute code* C
>
> Boundless can improve in this area and has already taken steps to do so.
> Boundless is sponsoring the upcoming International QGIS User and Developer
> Conference in Girona, Spain. We are looking to contribute much of our work
> on building and code-signing Mac installers. As noted above, we are
> planning larger contributions to documentation. Any further suggestions
> would be appreciated.
>
>
> ----------
>
> Boundless is committed to supporting both users and developers of
> open-source geospatial software as well as their surrounding communities.
> Without such support, and the tireless efforts of open-source communities,
> Boundless would not be so well positioned to offer supported open-source
> alternatives to heavily entrenched proprietary geospatial software.
>
> This balancing of open-source community and commercial support benefits
> everyone involved, so long as acknowledgement, communication and
> contribution flows both directions. Boundless has not been balanced in our
> marketing and contribution efforts, but has taken this first step towards
> finding a working solution. Any suggestions in this direction are welcomed.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Boundless and its QGIS team
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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