Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Jody Garnett wrote:
>> Another thing that came up in conversation last week was - why be 
>> involved in OSGEO? After all so far it has mostly been requests for 
>> work, on some problems we were comfortable ignoring previously...
>>
>> Here are some of the answers:
>> - source of funding for the "grunt work" we have real with (releases, 
>> user docs), this is the reason I bothered to do the providence review
>> - we need to set up ownership on our codebase, seems to just be a 
>> legal matter we can sort out via a letter from each developer
>> - collaboration with other projects, both to cut RnD costs and to 
>> share in interoperability testing
>> - shared marketing and branding, less exciting to us as we are a library
>>
>> We can see some of these results coming out meeting other communities 
>> face to face at FOSS4G, the goal will be to get the same kind of 
>> benefits out of OSGEO involvement.
> Jody,
>
> Note that "source of funding" isn't a sure thing.  In the current OSGeo
> sponsorship scheme this would devolve to getting GeoTools directed
> "project sponsorships" from organizations that depend on it or what to
> be supportive.  But OSGeo does provide a mechanism to collect and manage
> that money if you can find sponsors.
Understood Frank,

OSGeo is what we make of it after all (and I am much more comfortable
working through a foundation then encouraging say Source Forge paypall 
as a route.
Currently we operate as a venue for RnD, which leaves us lots of leeway 
for creating
new functionality, but not much for day to day operations (other then a 
dedicated
project management committee).
> The aspect that you haven't mentioned directly is to encourage adoption
> and use of GeoTools by organizations that might have been uncomfortable
> with the unclear accountability of the project.
Understood, and that is a good point. This is the larger goal that 
figuring out the legal issues
( code providence review and (c) ) is directed at solving. But currently 
this process does not
have a good "metric"...
The two I am waiting for are:
- feedback from David Adler, hist company is one with an explicit 
checklist that could guide our process
- feedback from OSGEO incubation process, ongoing

Adoption of GeoTools by more organizations would provide a motivation to 
get releases out on a dependable
schedule and so on, something I am tempted to include as an "incubation 
goal". Because without a release cycle
it is impossible to plan around a technology.
> The pain around code  copyright, and reviewing is aimed at two 
> things.  Helping to
> protect those  who work on and use the project, and to reduce the 
> fear, uncertainty and
> doubt of possible new adopters.
I see we are both making the same point :-)
> For me, this additional credibility / comfort was a big objective for me
> having GDAL/OGR incubate.  I want to drive maximum adoption, and for some
> organizations they want to see something more accountable than a guy 
> in the bush.
He He, you are ahead of me - credibility has not been my concern thus 
far I would like stability, predictability and so on. Basically I need 
to be the community to be credible to each other before we bother others.
> Best regards,
Cheers,
Jody

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