Someone already sent along one idea- a cheetah with a map instead of spots...
Steve >>> Emil Zegers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 11/28/05 9:08 AM >>> Congratulations all with this remarkable step ahead. Looks like MapServer is getting even more mature very quick. Also looking forward to see proposals for the new logo :-) Regards, Emil Zegers ----- Oorspronkelijk bericht ----- Van: Steve Lime <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Datum: maandag, november 28, 2005 2:37 pm Onderwerp: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] MapServer Foundation - Open Letter > An Open Letter to the MapServer Open Source Web Mapping Community > > November 28, 2005 > > Greetings MapServer community, > > We are pleased to share with you some exciting news about the > future of open source web mapping. > > Over the past few years MapServer adoption has grown ten-fold and > has become the web mapping platform of choice for many businesses, > government agencies, nonprofit groups and individuals. The > MapServer developers have added powerful new features. The > community has enjoyed three incredible conferences and continues > to support each other and enhance the community. > > We want to ensure that this success and momentum continues for the > MapServer product and community. MapServer continues to run well > in diverse environments and its rich set of features play an > indispensable role in many organizations. More than ever, we are > committed to improving MapServer and providing exceptional value > to the community. > > To this end, we take this opportunity to share two bits of news: > the creation of the MapServer Foundation and welcoming the > addition of Autodesk's next-generation web mapping platform > (previously known as Tux) as open source into the foundation. > > MapServer Foundation > > We are delighted to announce the creation of the MapServer > Foundation (mapserverfoundation.org). The foundation is a > nonprofit organization whose goal is to provide a supportive > framework for open, collaborative development of geospatial > software. Several groups and individuals are collaborating to help > launch and sponsor the new foundation. Financial support from > Autodesk will allow us to get the foundation up and running. In > this letter, we present some ideas of how we think the foundation > can help the community, but these ideas need broader discussion > and debate within the community. > > We looked to other successful open source movements, such as > Apache, to see how our community could benefit from the creation > of an independent foundation. It is clear that the time has come > to create a formal infrastructure to help further support and > promote the professional open source web mapping development > environments and communities. While initially focused on web > mapping projects, we hope the foundation will adopt other open > source geospatial projects that need a home. > > Forming the foundation is only the beginning, as we now seek > community involvement and participation. The foundation will have > a governance model that allows it to be run by a Board of > Directors that represents the community. How it is ultimately > going to be run is up to the members of the community. The > foundation will also have a set of bylaws that provide structure > and can be amended through a community voting process. > > Role of the foundation > > The first priority for the foundation is to engage the broader > MapServer community. Members of the community are encouraged to > join and get involved. Consider this letter as your invitation to > participate. The community web site is the place where you, as a > user and participant in the community, can follow and contribute > to the development of the MapServer Foundation family of projects. > > The primary responsibilities of the foundation may include: > > * Support code repository and other project infrastructure > * Formalized process for decision-making (e.g. where to host > the next conference) > * Legal protection for the source code and developers of the > software * Paying for development work on minor improvements of > the platform > * Acting as a central repository for marketing, branding and > professional image development of the product > * Providing process for mitigating disputes > * Financial support for advocacy, sponsorship, community > events and conferences > > Many of these community-related functions have been overseen in an > ad-hoc manner or deferred to the University of Minnesota or other > organizations in the past. The foundation will streamline the > coordination of legal, administrative and governance efforts. > > As MapServer will now be officially managed by the foundation, it > no longer makes sense to call it UMN MapServer. Product branding > is also becoming more important and this is a good opportunity to > introduce a more visual name for the product. We propose calling > it MapServer Cheetah. This presents a fast and agile image that > suits the product well and will help differentiate it from other > MapServer products. > > MapServer Cheetah & MapServer Enterprise > > We are also very excited about Autodesk's decision to release > their next generation web mapping platform into the open source > community through the MapServer Foundation. This adds further > legitimacy to our open source development platform. Their product > will be named MapServer Enterprise and is the successor to > Autodesk MapGuide but built on an entirely new architecture. > > MapServer Enterprise and MapServer Cheetah will be run as two > separate but parallel projects. There are no plans to merge them > into one but we aim to share technologies between the two projects > wherever possible. We also hope to provide utilities that allow > the community to easily use one or both platforms. > > MapServer Enterprise will be licensed using the OSI-approved GNU > Lesser General Public License (LGPL). MapServer Cheetah will > continue to be licensed under an MIT-style open source license. > Autodesk is eager to participate in an open and transparent > development process driven by independent guidance from the > community. We encourage you to check out MapServer Enterprise, > which is available today on the community web site. > > We are proud to be part of this community and we hope you will > join us in establishing the MapServer Foundation. For more > information on how to get involved, please visit the community > site at: mapserverfoundation.org and join the mailing list > discussions. > Sincerely, > > Steve Lime, Chair, MapServer Technical Steering Committee (MTSC) > Yewondwossen Assefa, MTSC Member > Howard Butler, MTSC Member > Daniel Morissette, MTSC Member > Perry Nacionales, MTSC Member > Frank Warmerdam, MTSC Member > Tom Burk, University of Minnesota > David McIlhagga, DM Solutions Group > Tyler Mitchell > Claude Philipona, Camptocamp SA and FOSS4G 2006 organizing committee > Gary Lang, Autodesk >
