Puneet,
Starting from the bottom, the meeting will be at a neutral location,
the Westin O'Hare, about 2km from O'Hare airport. To give you a
flavor of the event participants will be engaging in, my own
itinerary involves leaving my family at noon on Friday, arriving at
8pm in Chicago, transferring to the hotel, sleeping, spending the day
meeting, and getting on a plane first thing Sunday morning arriving
home at 2pm. It is a good thing I like planes.
Regarding "conflict of interest", whose? As influence peddling goes,
muffins and a day in a conference room at an airport Westin is pretty
paltry fare. Autodesk wants to get their open source offering out,
and they need a foundation to put it in. They will make one
regardless, to put it in. To their credit, they are bending over
backwards to ensure that the foundation they establish is as
welcoming to as many other open source projects as possible. They
are ensuring the foundation is welcoming by soliciting the input of
as many other projects as possible.
At the end of the day, this will not be Autodesk's foundation, it
will be the larger community's, and you will be able to tell by
looking at the makeup of the BoD (I have no advance knowledge here, I
am merely guessing). Corporations are not generous for fun, they are
generous in the pursuit of their interests and, in this case, it is
in Autodesk's interest to ensure the foundation their project is
managed within is vital, self-sustaining, and legitimate to the
larger open source community. That is the backdrop of their
generosity in paying travel costs for some of the participants, and
for the room in Chicago.
Finally, since much of this mistrust of intentions seems to flow
solely from the "Mapserver Enterprise" (MSE) naming issue, it is
worth reminding everyone that MSE was considered acceptable by
everyone who signed the open letter, a group that was largely
composed of people from the Mapserver community itself. They were
*wrong*, but their mistake was an honest one made with the best
intentions, and no one from that group has since stood up and said
"Autodesk made us do it": in fact they have stood up and said the
opposite, that the suggestion came from their side of the table
originally. So while the MSE naming debacle was a mistake, it can
not be used as some token of Autodesk's malign intent in assisting in
setting up this foundation. The lesson of the MSE episode is that
many eyes make mistakes like MSE impossible, hence the emphasis on
openness for this meeting.
Autodesk wants a strong, independent foundation with a broad
membership to put their product. We also want a strong independent
foundation with a broad membership. We all have the same destination
in mind, and are motives for getting there are the same too. Let's go.
Paul
On Jan 14, 2006, at 6:43 AM, Puneet Kishor wrote:
On Jan 13, 2006, at 11:32 AM, Paul Ramsey wrote:
In order to help move along the process of starting an "open
source geospatial foundation" there will be a face-to-face meeting
in Chicago, Westin O'Hare, on February 4, 2006, hosted by
Autodesk. In conceiving of this meeting, we have tried (and will
continue to try) to follow these principles:
- Inclusion. Members from a number of different open source
projects have been invited (see the list so far below) and
Autodesk has offered to pay the travel costs of some of these
invitees in order to ensure they can attend if they cannot afford
it otherwise. Anyone else is also welcome to attend physically or
virtually (see below).
Thanks to everyone for making this possible. There is a potential
problem with the above (note: I have said "potential," hence, it is
entirely possible that there may be no problem at all).
The meeting is hosted by Autodesk, and Autodesk will also pay for
some of the attendees to attend the meeting. Most of the negative
reaction to the initial announcement stemmed from a feeling of a
free/open source project and its name and goodwill being usurped by
a for-profit, closed source, publicly held corporation. Most
everyone welcomed Autodesk, but most everyone did not want to have
the MapServer Enterprise name applied to their product.
I hope Autodesk's financial underwriting of the above event will
not create a conflict of interest of any sort. Would it be
worthwhile publicly announcing the event so other private
corporations have an equal opportunity to attend/sponsor/represent
at the event?
Personally, I am happy that the meeting is at a place that I can
attend. Well, it is 150 miles from here, but I can drive there on
my own steam without feeling obligated to anyone. But, it would
have been nicer to have the meeting at a "neutral" location and
perhaps even at a neutral event. For example, the meeting could be
held at UMN, or even at a "rented" meeting room at O'Hare -- I
would be happy to chip in toward the cost from my pocket if the
expense is reasonable.
In any case, I believe this is an important and concrete step
forward, and I welcome and support it. As long as we come to the
meeting with an open and constructive mind, there shouldn't be any
issue. Thanks again, to all those who made it possible (and that
includes Autodesk).
--
Puneet Kishor
