Ed, Option B seems to cover that angle unless I am missing something?
Paul
On 22-Dec-05, at 8:43 PM, Ed McNierney wrote:
Gary -
You seem to be deliberately overlooking the rather obvious solution
of removing the word "MapServer" from the Foundation's name. If
one were to steal an idea from Tyler's editors and call it the "Web
Mapping Foundation", then many of the issues you describe below
would go away, wouldn't they? The "WMF MapServer" and "WMF
MapGuide" products are both members of the WMF product family as
much as a MapServer Enterprise and MapServer Cheetah are members of
the MapServer product family, aren't they? I'm not trying to lobby
for that particular name, but rather to point out another route to
a solution.
I guess that means I'd vote for (c).
- Ed
Ed McNierney
President and Chief Mapmaker
TopoZone.com / Maps a la carte, Inc.
73 Princeton Street, Suite 305
North Chelmsford, MA 01863
Phone: +1 (978) 251-4242
Fax: +1 (978) 251-1396
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-
[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gary Lang
Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2005 6:50 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] Poll: MapServer and Autodesk
Below is a note that Tyler Mitchell and I put together to help
describe some of the 'open letter' groups' thinking around the
name issue. There is also a new POLL related to it - please vote
when you have a minute. It will be very helpful to measuring
peoples' opinions.
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/community/polls/ms_autodesk
At the end of this message is a poll for you to vote on.
Those of us that signed the open letter may not have laid out
exactly what it meant to us to have a shared name brand. This note
is an attempt lay out those reasons clearly, so we all understand
why we thought it was important to share name brands.
Each of us knew that:
* MapServer has had a good history, significant market share and
has good equity in its name.
* Autodesk is a very successful company, with successful products
and has significant amounts of brand equity
* Autodesk were planning to release "Tux" as open source and
continue to develop it through an open source community
Autodesk had a choice to make: a) offer to work with MapServer to
find common ground, to build synergies and not compete; or, b) set
up their own open source geospatial software foundation as a home
for their product, develop their own independent branding for their
product and end up competing with MapServer.
In the spirit of open source, Autodesk engaged DM Solutions, UMN,
Steve Lime and other developers, etc. to try to find a way to work
together.
Granted, it was behind closed doors because an NDA was required for
a public company like Autodesk to even have such a conversation
with outsiders, but we thought we had a very good representation of
the leaders in the community.
Our collective thinking was that a common name for the products
would be ideal. Having both products under the same banner was
good, but only if both products and the foundation could share that
common name. There was going to be potential for confusion, but
sharing a common prefix for two different products is not unheard
of and it was going to be a major change. We all wanted to keep
building on MapServer momentum instead of ignoring MapServer and
building something independent of it.
After all the feedback from the community, it's more than obvious
that the naming is an major issue. But the naming of both the
products really represents the willingness to share the brand or
not. A "MapServer Foundation" cannot equally represent both
MapServer and MapGuide. The names are the brand. If a product
can't use the name, then it isn't using the brand.
Autodesk decided that it would rather take the harder road and work
with an existing community, than go it alone and work against that
community.
And the MapServer stakeholders decided they would take the hard
road and work with Autodesk to find a common path, rather then
compete head-to-head.
Then the story broke, and the MapServer community had the reaction
we all saw to the name. The general reaction to the announcement
outside of the MapServer community has actually been quite positive.
If a common name brand can't be used, then one alternative will be
that MapServer is not going to be leading the startup of a
foundation that can house both MapServer and Tux. As well, such a
foundation can not be called the "MapServer Foundation" any more
than it should be called the "MapGuide Foundation". In many ways,
voting against sharing the name brand is actually voting against
working with Autodesk on starting the MapServer Foundation.
Autodesk will not be willing to put their investment into a
foundation that hides their name brand under the name of another
web-based mapping project. It has already invested a lot of money
in promoting the "MapServer Foundation", which no one else has ever
done.
So this was the thinking and these are the choices. We didn't do
it all perfectly and not having broader community input was a real
problem. I wish that we could have put the following question out
there for community feedback from the very start.
Here is the poll question, please cast your vote and comment on the
poll online at:
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/community/polls/ms_autodesk
-------------
What serves the MapServer Community best?
a) Work with Autodesk under the MapServer Foundation, creating a
unified brand name, with MapServer and Autodesk lending their
respective brand equities to each other and working together to
make open source web mapping the platform of choice.
b) Work with Autodesk to release its product through a foundation
with a different name such as "MapTools", with MapServer now
competing directly with the new brand name that will be created and
heavily promoted by Autodesk, even though they will likely be
housed by the same foundation.
Gary Lang
Tyler Mitchell
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