On 1-Oct-07, at 2:03 PM, Howard Butler wrote:
On Sep 30, 2007, at 4:10 PM, Paul Spencer wrote:
What do others think about this? Should OSGeo be in the business
of helping new OSGeo projects get off the ground?
I don't think OSGeo should generally be in the business of getting
new projects off the ground. I think a project should establish
*itself* as a viable development entity before entertaining a
relationship with OSGeo.
OSGeo promoting startup project "Foo" has the effect of giving it
equal weight to all of the other projects within OSGeo. In my
opinion, this has the effect of weakening OSGeo's promotional
authority and providing an unnatural advantage to the Foo project.
Growth that is too fast for a project can be just as detrimental as
growth that is too slow. A project jumping into OSGeo and having
it provide "umph" for the project disrupts the organic growth that
I think is necessary for a project to become viable and
successful. A project must find its niche on its own and garner
development and developer traction because it fills a need, not
because OSGeo says "you should use this great new thing because ...".
OSGeo's provides infrastructure to its member projects as an
enticement to join. There are many options for a project's
infrastructure, with everything from sourceforge to google code to
standing up your own. OSGeo's infrastructure approach stands out
because a project can collectively leverage other project's
infrastructure while still having the flexibility to do pretty much
whatever you want (given time/resources/volunteers). OSGeo's
infrastructure is not a push-button operation though, and I don't
think it would be as successful if it were (dealing with Google
code or sourceforge is going to be much simpler than trying to deal
with us, frankly).
I think a project needs to read Fogel (http://producingoss.com/),
find its niche, grow a community around the development of the
software, and then look to OSGeo for promotional, infrastructure,
legal, and other support.
Thanks Howard. What I am concerned with is people who have a great
idea but don't know what to do with it, or how one goes about
establishing a viable community. The people that I spoke with last
week didn't know how to get started. I am convinced that there are
more people, especially outside north america, who can't make it to
FOSS4G just to ask someone. Not reaching out a helping hand to those
projects seems a little harsh to me.
Maybe it is enough to have a section on the OSGeo web site something
like:
'Have a Great Idea?'
Here's how you can get started ...
1. read the following web sites ...
2. get a home at sourceforge or ... or ...
3. promote yourself on the following lists: ...
Paul
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|Paul Spencer [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
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|Chief Technology Officer |
|DM Solutions Group Inc http://www.dmsolutions.ca/ |
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