[GeoNetwork-devel] GeoNetwork incubator status; time to graduate

GeoNetwork GeoNetwork Developer
1

Hi all,
I wanted to give you an update on where we are with the GeoNetwork opensource incubation process. I think we are about ready to request passing incubation. We have done all the required work from what I can see.

All details can be found on the GeoNetwork incubator page and related pages.
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/GeoNetwork_Incubation_Status

The only thing I'm waiting for is our advisory board members to give their OK on the PSC guidelines. Not all responded to my request. They take too long from my perspective :wink:

Some more background on that:
Last year we decided to have an advisory board more than a project steering committee and have me coordinate the day to day project. The idea was that the project runs fine and we do not want to complicate that process with many rules & regulations. So we identified a number of people to take seat on the advisory board and make sure we all meet during the GeoNetwork workshop. During that workshop we have both technical workshops and working groups that discuss the requirements and related work plan for the project. This is a community process. All members of the GN community are invited and asked (also on the mailing list) to give their priorities. We reach consensus on the work plan and look for who does what.

Since all code review has been done, the committers have agreed to the Committer Guidelines and I want to finish incubation before our next GeoNetwork workshop (as agreed by the GeoNetwork workshop last year) I hereby want to ask the incubation committee to consider graduating the project.

During the Workshop I will propose to also install a project committee that deals with the actual technical implementation. That means we will work towards a two level structure in which we have an advisory board and a technical committee. The last one will have developers and users in its membership while the first one has a more general advisory role.

OK, looking forward to hear from the incubation committee.
Ciao,
Jeroen

2

Hi Jody,
You probably read the email below :slight_smile: I realize that while writing the email I ran a bit fast, starting as an update email and in all my enthusiasm skipping the fact that this should go through you. However, I think the email raised some questions on the incubation list to which I have tried to add some background.

It would be good to discuss this a bit more with you. How do you think we should best proceed? I wouldn’t want us to go through a full update process of code review etc… in another 6 or 12 months from now honestly.

I realize that our PSC establishment is not in optimal form yet, but consider that also to be like that due to the relative small number of active contributors and the lack of a need to change from the community perspective. I’ve made at least two serious attempts in the past to change the governance structure, but without the response required to get that done.

Others on this list, please speak up if you think it is time to change the existing structure (or not). I’m all for it to be honest, it just needs active parties to make it happen.

I hope to avoid ending up in an endless incubation period that does not help the project much and could even work out more negative than positive.

Looking forward to some discussion here.
Ciao,
Jeroen

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jeroen Ticheler <Jeroen@anonymised.com>
Date: October 18, 2007 3:02:18 PM GMT+02:00
To: Incubator@anonymised.com
Cc: geonetwork-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: [Incubator] GeoNetwork incubator status; time to graduate

Hi all,
I wanted to give you an update on where we are with the GeoNetwork opensource incubation process. I think we are about ready to request passing incubation. We have done all the required work from what I can see.

All details can be found on the GeoNetwork incubator page and related pages.
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/GeoNetwork_Incubation_Status

The only thing I’m waiting for is our advisory board members to give their OK on the PSC guidelines. Not all responded to my request. They take too long from my perspective :wink:

Some more background on that:
Last year we decided to have an advisory board more than a project steering committee and have me coordinate the day to day project. The idea was that the project runs fine and we do not want to complicate that process with many rules & regulations. So we identified a number of people to take seat on the advisory board and make sure we all meet during the GeoNetwork workshop. During that workshop we have both technical workshops and working groups that discuss the requirements and related work plan for the project. This is a community process. All members of the GN community are invited and asked (also on the mailing list) to give their priorities. We reach consensus on the work plan and look for who does what.

Since all code review has been done, the committers have agreed to the Committer Guidelines and I want to finish incubation before our next GeoNetwork workshop (as agreed by the GeoNetwork workshop last year) I hereby want to ask the incubation committee to consider graduating the project.

During the Workshop I will propose to also install a project committee that deals with the actual technical implementation. That means we will work towards a two level structure in which we have an advisory board and a technical committee. The last one will have developers and users in its membership while the first one has a more general advisory role.

OK, looking forward to hear from the incubation committee.
Ciao,
Jeroen

Incubator mailing list
Incubator@anonymised.com
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator

3

Hi Jeroen; glad to see you moving forward. I just saw people voting on the PSC part as recently as the 11th.
- PSC – GeoNetwork opensource Developer website

We should make sure your PSC is set up established and working before graduating. Your email mentioned that this was decided back in April - has the PSC managed to handle a proposal yet? Perhaps we should wait until after your November 5th meeting.

Cheers,
Jody

Hi all,
I wanted to give you an update on where we are with the GeoNetwork opensource incubation process. I think we are about ready to request passing incubation. We have done all the required work from what I can see.

All details can be found on the GeoNetwork incubator page and related pages.
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/GeoNetwork_Incubation_Status

The only thing I'm waiting for is our advisory board members to give their OK on the PSC guidelines. Not all responded to my request. They take too long from my perspective :wink:

Some more background on that:
Last year we decided to have an advisory board more than a project steering committee and have me coordinate the day to day project. The idea was that the project runs fine and we do not want to complicate that process with many rules & regulations. So we identified a number of people to take seat on the advisory board and make sure we all meet during the GeoNetwork workshop. During that workshop we have both technical workshops and working groups that discuss the requirements and related work plan for the project. This is a community process. All members of the GN community are invited and asked (also on the mailing list) to give their priorities. We reach consensus on the work plan and look for who does what.

Since all code review has been done, the committers have agreed to the Committer Guidelines and I want to finish incubation before our next GeoNetwork workshop (as agreed by the GeoNetwork workshop last year) I hereby want to ask the incubation committee to consider graduating the project.

During the Workshop I will propose to also install a project committee that deals with the actual technical implementation. That means we will work towards a two level structure in which we have an advisory board and a technical committee. The last one will have developers and users in its membership while the first one has a more general advisory role.

OK, looking forward to hear from the incubation committee.
Ciao,
Jeroen
_______________________________________________
Incubator mailing list
Incubator@anonymised.com
Incubator Info Page

4

Jeroen Ticheler wrote:

Hi Jody,

You probably read the email below :slight_smile: I realize that while writing the email I ran a bit fast, starting as an update email and in all my enthusiasm skipping the fact that this should go through you. However, I think the email raised some questions on the incubation list to which I have tried to add some background.

I am not a gatekeeper; only here to help facilitate. I have been reading your devel list and have not watched a lot of PSC action (yet?).

It would be good to discuss this a bit more with you. How do you think we should best proceed? I wouldn't want us to go through a full update process of code review etc.. in another 6 or 12 months from now honestly.

Not at all; we should probably do a couple spot checks on your codebase; actually confirm the headers are in order. And put a date on when the providence review was completed. Is there a developers guide when I can see a commitment to do that providence review again; say for each major release?

I saw some "Please read!! Committer" emails going out; if you have gotten agreement from everyone there should be a list somewhere (other than your inbox?).

I realize that our PSC establishment is not in optimal form yet, but consider that also to be like that due to the relative small number of active contributors and the lack of a need to change from the community perspective. I've made at least two serious attempts in the past to change the governance structure, but without the response required to get that done.

Fair enough; a very good change request would of been "Release 2.1.0" :wink: Basically we should have some public history that the PSC can function as an organized body. If the decisions were made on email a link to the email thread with the voting would be sufficient. If you want to grandfather this to some extent show the members of your PSC making a decision (together) in the past.

Others on this list, please speak up if you think it is time to change the existing structure (or not). I'm all for it to be honest, it just needs active parties to make it happen.

I think the OSGeo foundation wants to make sure everyone on this list (from whatever organization) is able to take part in directing the future GeoNetwork project. I am a bit startled at the in person meeting in Rome (but what the heck ... it is too bad I cannot make it). In a similar manner if FAO was to pull the plug on the project we want to ensure it has a enough polices and procedures in place to survive the experience.

While it is great that Jeroen is so capable (way to go Jeroen!) - what happens when he is busy?

I hope to avoid ending up in an endless incubation period that does not help the project much and could even work out more negative than positive.

It sounds like we are through all the hard stuff; MapServer had a bit of fun getting their PSC off the ground as well. They graduated with only a few months of PSC activity.

Looking forward to some discussion here.

As am I; perhaps another member of the committee can walk me through (IRC chat or email?) where the project procedures are etc...

Cheers,
Jody
PS. If there is a history of decisions I appologize for missing it :frowning:

5

Jody Garnett wrote:

It sounds like we are through all the hard stuff; MapServer had a bit of fun getting their PSC off the ground as well. They graduated with only a few months of PSC activity.
  

Within seconds of posting this I was corrected :wink:

6

Okay I messed up and produced a message that was over one screen of text; so open source email gods punish me with no feedback :wink:

As am I; perhaps another member of the committee can walk me through (IRC chat or email?) where the project procedures are etc...
  

Can I ask a member of the GeoNetwork PSC walk me through the project procedures?

Cheers,
Jody

7

Hi Jody,
Am out of FAO now traveling. You can find the PSC docs on PSC – GeoNetwork opensource Developer website
Back in the office next week.
Ciao,
Jeroen

On Oct 23, 2007, at 2:29 AM, Jody Garnett wrote:

Okay I messed up and produced a message that was over one screen of text; so open source email gods punish me with no feedback :wink:

As am I; perhaps another member of the committee can walk me through (IRC chat or email?) where the project procedures are etc...

Can I ask a member of the GeoNetwork PSC walk me through the project procedures?

Cheers,
Jody

8

Yes you are; I am hoping to see the PSC leap into action :wink:

I looked at this page earlier and it covers a voting procedure; I would like to see the documentation on what the PSC is up to. Specifically I want to answer the following questions:
- what has the psc voted on
- who are the members

Fun stuff, enjoy being away Jeroen.
Jody

Hi Jody,
Am out of FAO now traveling. You can find the PSC docs on PSC – GeoNetwork opensource Developer website
Back in the office next week.
Ciao,
Jeroen

On Oct 23, 2007, at 2:29 AM, Jody Garnett wrote:

Okay I messed up and produced a message that was over one screen of text; so open source email gods punish me with no feedback :wink:

As am I; perhaps another member of the committee can walk me through (IRC chat or email?) where the project procedures are etc...

Can I ask a member of the GeoNetwork PSC walk me through the project procedures?

Cheers,
Jody

9

Hi Jody,

The PSC docs are brand new and we haven't gone through any formal voting yet. I think that after the incubation list discussion, I'll go back to the GeoNetwork workshop and discuss with the PSC how to proceed with the development / refinement / use of more formal procedures. The suggested PSC and a Technical Steering Committee seems a good refinement in that sense. The members of the PSC are listed on the PSC page.

Ciao,
Jeroen

On Oct 23, 2007, at 6:58 PM, Jody Garnett wrote:

Yes you are; I am hoping to see the PSC leap into action :wink:

I looked at this page earlier and it covers a voting procedure; I would like to see the documentation on what the PSC is up to. Specifically I want to answer the following questions:
- what has the psc voted on
- who are the members

Fun stuff, enjoy being away Jeroen.
Jody

Hi Jody,
Am out of FAO now traveling. You can find the PSC docs on PSC – GeoNetwork opensource Developer website
Back in the office next week.
Ciao,
Jeroen

On Oct 23, 2007, at 2:29 AM, Jody Garnett wrote:

Okay I messed up and produced a message that was over one screen of text; so open source email gods punish me with no feedback :wink:

As am I; perhaps another member of the committee can walk me through (IRC chat or email?) where the project procedures are etc...

Can I ask a member of the GeoNetwork PSC walk me through the project procedures?

Cheers,
Jody