Hi all,
Although this shouldn't become an unmanageable discussion 
I think it is very important to take the project management issue up on the mailing list to ensure we get the most workable project management for all.
Some context:
- We are facing a very exciting and challenging time at the moment with a very fast growing user and developer community. So its time to raise some project management issues and this email intends to do that.
- Currently we use SourceForge.net software development tools for the development. We use a limited set of them of which the CVS, the mailing lists and file release system are the main ones. The trackers are also used, but not very consistently.
- We also have a Plone based Community website that is used for Documentation (user, editor, admin and developer) and Software releases.
- At the Second GeoNetwork workshop, one of the decisions was to move the project into the newly created OSGEO foundation (http://www.osgeo.org) once that foundation is more stable, infrastructure is in place and the incubation process is open to new projects. Moving GeoNetwork opensource into OSGEO is seen as a strategic step to facilitate closer integration with complementary software in the geospatial arena, especially the java stack, but not excluding applications like MapServer, GRASS, GDAL etc...
- Current development versus future development. I see two clear phases in the near future:
- First we are working on the release 2.1 of the software that includes CSW 2 support (ISO 19115/19119 profile, ISO 19139 validated metadata support and a range of smaller improvements.
- Second we will be working on the design of GeoNetwork opensource version 3.0. Some of the upcoming requirements will most likely need redesigning parts of the architecture.
The consequence is that we need to find the most practical solution that does not limit our current work towards version 2.1 but at the same time provides new developers with the options to follow what's going on and what they can do.
Work on version 3 will most likely overlap to a large extent with the incubation process into OSGEO. The design part will most likely start before this incubation process starts, so we need a facility to support this without running into a situation where we are forced to go into an additional migration procedure. I will write to the OSGEO Incubator Committee to see if there are options to start using some WIKI pages for instance on the OSGEO site if that would be a desired way to proceed(?).
OK, that provides quite a bit of context. Now, what can we do towards the future and what tools should we use in the future?
Code management: The general trend seems to be to move the code into Subversion instead of CVS. OSGEO is setting up Subversion and SourceForge also provides SV since some months. I think we should consider moving the code into SV after the release of version 2.1 and use SV from version 3.0 onwards.
Mailing lists: Nothing to be changed. We will create one more mailing list for the advisory board that was formed during the workshop. There may be a need for one more list if we were to start using a system that reports on a regular basis on CVS/SV changes and tracker changes.
Trackers: This is an area for improvement. There are several options here; SourceForge's, JIRA, The facilities in the Plone Software center (although I think they are not so elegant 
), ...??
We need something for task assignment, bug tracking, time management/ scheduling
Architecture development, road map development et cetera. We again have several options. The decision should best fit with what OSGEO is going to use but they are not clear on this themselves yet. Options are: The Community website (some functions can be covered by that (e.g. WIKIs) but not all), Collabnet (now in use by OSGEO but not sure they will keep it, Codehaus (used by e.g. many of the Java based software like GeoServer, uDig, GeoTools), ...???
I think that having some WIKI pages could be useful here, but ideas and experiences are very welcome!
Sorry for this long email, I hope it will prove a useful starting point however.
Ciao,
Jeroen
_______________________
Jeroen Ticheler
FAO-UN
Tel: +39 06 57056041
http://www.fao.org/geonetwork
42.07420°N 12.34343°E