One of the goals we've talked about for the GeoNode project is to open up not just the software development but also the funding/roadmap process. We want the vision to be collaboratively built, meeting a number of specific use cases by making a strong and flexible core.
Galen and I last week worked on a little process to open up the filling out of the roadmap. The first goal is to open up to the web all the ideas that have been talked about in various conversations, so that everyone can see the next steps for GeoNode and the potential future directions. This should make it much easier for potential funders and contributors to see where they can help out. The second even more important goal is to open the roadmap for anyone to submit an idea and get it on the roadmap, so we all shape the future together. We started the roadmap page, and got a few initial items on, see http://geonode.org/roadmap/ It has a link to submit a new roadmap item, you just create an issue at http://code.google.com/p/geonode-roadmap/issues/entry There you will be prompted for the pieces to fill out and then either Galen and I will guide through the process of getting on to geonode.org The basic workflow that we do is at http://code.google.com/p/geonode-roadmap/wiki/RoadmapWorkflow If anyone else wants to help us we can make you an admin on that project as well. The issue tracker is just to track roadmap items, for now we close the issue when it gets on to the web site, like http://geonode.org/roadmap/upload-non-georeferenced-maps/ Once we get a lot of roadmap items I'd like to flesh out another set of cross cutting views of the features, organized by use case. So we could have GeoNode for Urban Planning, which spells out how a GeoNode could be used, and what roadmap items would help it. And I'm hoping the ITHACA team can help us flesh out GeoNode for disaster response. Having this roadmap in place should allow us all to more easily approach funders, and be ready to turn an item in to a feature spec, a technical spec, an estimate, a terms of reference and a funded contract. If we do this right I think it could be a great boon to all the underlying open source projects we rely on, as we are committed to improving the core technologies of each of them. This is essential to our success, so the GeoNode is as flexible as possible, not a series of one of hacks.
