[GRASS-dev] GRASS PSC..... Next steps

Hey gang

Ahhhh, the beginning of September is upon us. For those in my part of the world this meeans the days are getting shorter, nights are cooler and air conditioners can start being shut down. For many of the people on this list this also means you are getting a new load of students at your school… to you profs and teachers I bid you luck.

September also brings some great new opportunities for the GRASS community and a step forward in the PSC process and following through on our commitment to some things OSGEO related.

While I was away on vacation I received a few more confirmed nominations for the PSC. By the time I tallied it all up we came out with an even 10. This is great for many reasons. First it is a list of people who have been quite active in many things GRASS. Even if you have not seen them active on the mailing list they have helped progress the GRASS project, tie it in through education, develop ways to use grass with other software, build tutorials and many other contributions. Thanks to all those who accepted nominations.

Furthermore I want to thank everyone who took the time to offer a nomination or cast a vote (in the early days at least). Without you we would not have a great list of members.

Also I want to thank the GRASS community at large for helping me through the organization of the process over the past weeks. I received many e-mails sugesting how to make the process more open, stream lined, and democratic while respecting peoples wishes of their level of involvement.

And of course thanks to Markus for starting the PSC process and providing the RFC materials that will help the PSC get started.

So,

The original plan was to now open the process of voting for your preffered nominees.

What I propose is that 10 people is a good number and the general feel is that the GRASS community supports these nominations. I would like to propose that the GRASS PSC is formed from the 10 members listed bellow. Unless there are justified reasons from the GRASS community to do otherwise and we prefer to have a vote. Drop me a line privately if you wish and I will consider the voting stage if needed)

So unless I am notified otherwise I would like to take this opportunity to formaly introduce the GRASS PSC consisting of the following members

The GRASS Project Steering Committee (PSC)

Dylan Baudette
Michael Barton
Maciej Sieczka
Helena Mitasova
Markus Neteler
Scott Mitchell
Massimiliano Cannata
Brad Douglas
Hamish
Paul Kelly

CONGRATS………

So what’s next?

It has been brought up many times that it is unclear exactly what the PSC was going to do. Well that is exactly what the PSC gets to work out, they are the egg that gets to create the chicken (or is that backwards?). But of course they are not thrown into the cage without anything to start with.

So I propose the first steps of the GRASS PSC (after they have a chance to introduce themselves to each other and raise a virtual toast of course) might include

  1. Take a look at the Mapserver PSC and examine some other examples as well (can’t find the link)
  2. Determine a main PSC representative that can bridge the PSC to OSGEO
  3. Have someone that can be a point contact for users
  4. have someone that can be a point contact for developers
  5. Review original letters to the community http://grass.gdf-hannover.de/wiki/GRASS_Project_Steering_Commitee
  6. Create/revise an RFC (Request for comment) for the GRASS community to consider
  7. Update WIKI pages

Throughout this process I am assuming the GRASS commuity will be able to offer additional support, feedback and ideas of how to address concerns and challenges.

I wish you all good luck and I look forward to seeing the GRASS PSC move forward and following their progress.

Cheers