Folks, This is a somewhat sticky area, which is why I started just with just the self-registration mechanism on the OSGeo site in the past.
A scenario that I could support would be a section somewhat like the postgis.net support list where being added to it needs to be voted on by the PSC. My criteria as a PSC member would be: - The organization has made significant contributions to the project (in code, docs, etc) - The organization has staff that I personally know to be competent GDAL/OGR developers. It is a slippery sort of thing of course. Subjective, and I would hate to be in the situation where I'm having to vote against an addition. If we were to pursue this I actually think an RFC with an initial list of entries, and some general principles would be appropriate (though additions wouldn't need an RFC - just a up/down vote). My perspective when consulting was that being active on the mailing list, and noting in my email signature that I was available for consulting was enough to give me some profile with those looking for someone. PS. as happy customer of Even's (at Planet Labs) I can strongly endorse him as a consultant! Best regards, Frank On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 8:37 AM, Eli Adam <ea...@co.lincoln.or.us> wrote: > Adding a support section like some other OSGeo projects is a good idea (in > my opinion). This is a way for people to use the project webpage to find > those who are most substantially contributing to the project and know the > most about GDAL/OGR. > > > On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 5:46 AM, <berte...@charta.acme.com> wrote: > >> Charta is interested to be listed as experienced provider if gdal.org >> will ever add info about commercial support. >> >> Nevertheless, I think this item has to receive more attention, >> considering at least: >> * the license of GDAL. Using MIT license means being expecially open to >> commercial usage. I don't know if this is really consequential with >> selecting a group of commercial providers instead of being agnostic about >> usage of the code and technology created (I don't agree with this, but...); >> * usually support means choice between several tools and technologies, >> being a core contributor could mean some bias about recurring to a specific >> tool. Being listed as such could become a double-edged sword; >> > > If you are looking for GDAL/OGR support (on the gdal.org web page) you > have already made your technology choice. If you are looking for support > in selecting a technology you should not be looking on gdal.org but > rather collecting references or otherwise doing research on appropriate > support in whatever domain you're in. gdal.org is not the the proper > place to look for support on javascript libraries or other non-GDAL/OGR > topics. Someone may be better off with advice to use something other than > GDAL/OGR but gdal.org is not the place to get that advice (the people and > companies listed there may give that advice if approached but they would > best know what is out of the GDAL/OGR scope). > > >> * any evaluation aobut support should be based on the help provided to >> the user and not about the contribution to the project. The client shoud be >> able to choose if he needs "broad" or "focused" support, if he needs new >> developments or better integration and so on. Listing experiences or >> specialisation (geodatabases, remote sensing and so on) could be more >> useful. >> > > A prudent customer might evaluate support by referrals and reviews based > on help provided to the user but gdal.org is in no place to evaluate > that. gdal.org is certainly in a place to evaluate and recommend those > who have a history of competently contributing to the project (tickets, > patches, commits, emails correctly answered, relevant presentations at > FOSS4G, etc). > > The OSGeo Service providers directory, > http://www.osgeo.org/search_profile?SET=1&MUL_TECH[0]=00013 already > provides a mechanism for self listing anything the person listing wants. > This remains a valuable resource for researching support options but gives > no indication of who is competently contributing to the project. > > The PostGIS support page lists focus area of support, > http://postgis.net/support > > Best regards, Eli > > >> >> Even's case is noteworthy, because he is more than a "Core contributor", >> but a project leader for GDAL. When his affiliation to École des Mines >> changed to his own company, Spatialys, I thought this was a very good move >> because he could more easily provide consulting services to commercial >> entities. Maybe his visibility as a prominent person in this community is >> already warranted, I understand that his proposal is addressed to others, >> but I think gdal-dev is about developing, although the list provides a lot >> of help to users, is this the right place? >> > c >> >> On Thu, Aug 20, 2014 at 10:02:35 PM, Even Rouault wrote: >> >> Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 22:02:35 +0200 >> From: Even Rouault <even.roua...@spatialys.com> >> To: "gdal-dev@lists.osgeo.org" <gdal-dev@lists.osgeo.org> >> Subject: [gdal-dev] Adding a "Commercial support" section on gdal.org >> ? >> Message-ID: <201408202202.36022.even.roua...@spatialys.com> >> Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="us-ascii" >> >> >> Hi, >> >> I'm wondering if there would be a concensus and interest to add a >> "Commercial >> support" section on gdal.org. A number of OSGeo projects have such >> page (see >> [1]), so that wouldn't be completely awkward to have one for GDAL as >> well. >> >> The OSGeo Service provider database reference 137 >> companies/individuals that >> have registered themselves as providing GDAL support ([2]) ! Pretty >> cool, but >> I'm wondering how a user not familiar with the project could >> effectively use >> that list to identify core contributors from casual advanced users. >> >> If we agree for adding a "Commercial support" section, the question >> is : on >> which criteria do we accept an organization/individual to be listed >> in the >> section ? We would want them to be as most objective and non >> debatable as >> possible. >> A simple criterion could be anyone who has commit rights (in trunk, >> not just >> in a sandbox or customer branch). There are currently 56 SVN >> committers. That >> could be strengthened with a minimum number of commits/lines changed >> during a >> period, but we perhaps don't need that level of complexity. >> We could possibly also extend that to entities that provide public >> support to >> users through gdal-dev or other public forums (gis.stackexchange, >> others?). >> Other suggestions ? >> >> Should we distinguish several categories of actors ? >> - QGIS makes a division between "Core contributors" vs "Contributors". >> GeoServer has "Core contributors", "Experienced providers" and >> "Additional >> services" (the last one is populated on service provider request). >> - On the other side, deegree, Geomoose or Geotools simply list them >> in a >> single section. >> The answer likely depends on the number of organizations that would >> be listed >> (I guess below 10 we don't need much structure). The difficulty here >> would be to >> establish the categories and criteria. >> >> So, could entities interested in being listed reply to this email so >> we can >> have a better idea of how many would be listed, and if we need more >> stricter >> criteria or several categories ? >> As far as I'm concerned, Spatialys would be interested. >> >> Best regards, >> >> Even >> >> [1] Non exhaustive list of OSGeo projects with a commercial support >> section : >> http://geoserver.org/support/ >> http://www.geomoose.org/info/commercial_support.html >> http://docs.geotools.org/latest/userguide/welcome/support.html >> http://wiki.deegree.org/deegreeWiki/GettingSupport >> http://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/commercial_support.html >> >> [2] OSGeo Service Provider catalog with entities declaring GDAL >> expertise : >> http://www.osgeo.org/search_profile?SET=1&MUL_TECH[]=00013 >> >> >> -- >> Spatialys - Geospatial professional services >> http://www.spatialys.com >> >> >> -- >> ------------------------------------------------------------ >> -------------- >> Carlo A. Bertelli >> Charta servizi e sistemi per il territorio e la storia ambientale srl >> Dipendenze del palazzo Doria, >> vc. alla Chiesa della Maddalena 9/2 16124 Genova (Italy) >> tel. +39(0)10 2475439 fax +39(0)10 2475439 gsm:+39 393 1590711 >> ------------------------------------------------------------ >> -------------- >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> gdal-dev mailing list >> gdal-dev@lists.osgeo.org >> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/gdal-dev >> > > > _______________________________________________ > gdal-dev mailing list > gdal-dev@lists.osgeo.org > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/gdal-dev > -- ---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank Warmerdam, warmer...@pobox.com light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam and watch the world go round - Rush | Geospatial Software Developer
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