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The Open Source Geospatial Foundation is not-for-profit organization to empower everyone with open source geospatial. Directly supports projects as an outreach and advocacy organization providing financial, organizational and legal support. Works with our sponsors and partners for open software, standards, data, research and education.
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incubator application questionnaire version 2.0 draft #242

Closed jodygarnett closed 11 months ago

jodygarnett commented 1 year ago

Updated based on video meeting discussion:

Official version 1.0 document:

jodygarnett commented 1 year ago

I suspect that the questions could be sorted a bit to group topics together more smoothly.

Get all the introductions out of the way early, then project descriptions, etc...

kalxas commented 1 year ago

Perhaps change the date of the v2.0 document to 2023?

gdt commented 1 year ago

This is a bikeshed kind of comment, but it would be nice to have this be markdown or equivalent instead of a non-diffable format. (But at least it is odt and not a proprietary format!)

jodygarnett commented 1 year ago

This is a bikeshed kind of comment, but it would be nice to have this be markdown or equivalent instead of a non-diffable format. (But at least it is odt and not a proprietary format!)

We are trying to have official logos and so on official stuff. We can make a markdown for cut and paste like we did for incubation checklist.

gdt commented 1 year ago

This is a bikeshed kind of comment, but it would be nice to have this be markdown or equivalent instead of a non-diffable format. (But at least it is odt and not a proprietary format!)

We are trying to have official logos and so on official stuff. We can make a markdown for cut and paste like we did for incubation checklist.

I am pretty sure markdown can include the logo and a markdown-to-whatever can render it. But if it's hard, don't worry about me; I really did mean "this is a bikeshed kind of comment".

jodygarnett commented 11 months ago

I am pretty sure markdown can include the logo and a markdown-to-whatever can render it. But if it's hard, don't worry about me; I really did mean "this is a bikeshed kind of comment".

It is more I spent too much time in the marketing committee focused on branding :)

From a lower barrier to entry having the markdown for cut and paste is a good action.

neteler commented 11 months ago

FWIW, here converted with pandoc to MD:

Incubator Application

Questionnaire

Purpose

The purpose of this questionnaire is to gather information from projects teams wishing to join the OSGeo Foundation as a committee. Project teams accepted into incubation are assigned a mentor for guidance in meeting the incubation requirements.

Projects are required to be first recognized as an OSGeo Community project, complete with OSGeo website page. Applicants are encouraged to provide detailed answers below.

Questions

  1. Provide the name and email address of the project owner and co-owners (if applicable).

  2. Introduce your project team including the name, email and organization for all committers.

  3. Who is your incubation mentor (or are you seeking a volunteer)?\ It can take some time to locate a suitable mentor. If you already have a volunteer in mind it greatly assist the application process.

  4. Please provide link to project page on OSGeo website.\ Double check page is complete with:

    • Project description
    • Type of application this project represents
    • Relationships with other open source projects
    • Open source license(s) used for source code
    • Downloads to confirmation project has made an official release
    • Project support of open standards

  5. Why is this project team applying to join OSGeo Foundation?

  6. Please describe any relationships with commercial companies or products.

  7. What is the origin / history of your project?\ Commercial, experimental, academic, research, government, or some other source?

  8. If the project is listed as supporting an open standard - has the team obtained certification (or intends to seek certification)?

  9. Is the project technology covered by patents (and who owns these patents)?

  10. Is the project name, or technologies, covered by trademark (and who owns the trademark)?

  11. Does your team control the copyright for your project source code and documentation?

  12. How actively used is your project or technology?\ Example number of users, downstream applications, prominent websites, inclusion in distributions.

  13. How many people actively contribute to the project at this time?\ Contributions include code, documentation, community building, ...

  14. How many people have commit access to the source code repository?

  15. What are the drivers for your project -- share how your project/technology is used by the public?\ Include use by government, commercial, enthusiast, academic, research, aid, ...

  16. Does the project presently include automated build and quality assurance?

  17. What programming languages are used by this project?

  18. What is the primary written language(s) of the project team?\ Example English, French, Spanish, German, ...

gdt commented 11 months ago

For "Does your team control the copyright", I think we need more. The question is really: Do you follow inbound=outbound, or do you have some kind of CLA? If some kind of CLA, attach it. Does it involve copyright assignment? If so, to who, and what are the reciprocal covenants? Does the project have the right to distribute the code under a different license, as a special case (vs anyone being able to distribute BSD code under GPL). For assignment to other than a charitable organization, explain why healthy governance is assured over the long term. In particular, explain why the project cannot be taken proprietary.

And add: Does your project distribute anything other than under the license you explained above, such as via app stores with proprietary terms? if so, explain fully. Explain whether code from anywhere else appears in the binary objects being distributed. Explain how this distribution is compliant with the license of that other code.

gdt commented 11 months ago

Under "describe commercial", add: If any company employs or has control over 25% or more steering committee members, committers, or any other group with authority, explain in detail the governance issues

jodygarnett commented 11 months ago

Under "describe commercial", add: If any company employs or has control over 25% or more steering committee members, committers, or any other group with authority, explain in detail the governance issues

We are attempting to ask projects what they have in place now - many of these topics will be worked on during incubation process. A common example is moving from company control and establishing a steering committee and governance.

jodygarnett commented 11 months ago

The app store issue may or may not be a concern based on distribution model compatibility with opensource license chosen.

Once again this is advocacy and outreach so we do not want to scare folks with requirements that they can address during incubation process.

jodygarnett commented 11 months ago

For "Does your team control the copyright", I think we need more.

I do not think we need much more, this is fact findings

I considered “Free and open source licenses depend on control of copyright for enforcement. How is copyright manages in your project?”

jodygarnett commented 11 months ago

I think some of this can be thrown out if we assume earlier “osgeo community” step has been taken.

The incubation process is available to projects that have joined the osgeo community program as a recognition of excellence, trust, and respect of OSGeo values. Successfully competing incubation will recognize your project team as a full OSGeo committee.

  1. Has your project joined the OSGeo community program?
gdt commented 11 months ago

For "Does your team control the copyright", I think we need more.

I do not think we need much more, this is fact findings

I considered “Free and open source licenses depend on control of copyright for enforcement. How is copyright manages in your project?”

We obviously have philosophical differences but this is more. "Does your team control the copyrigtht" is s a very confusing question and I do not expect anyone at all to really understand it. On a non-geo project I maintain, I am really clear on how it works, and on licensing issues - but I still don't know whether I should answer yes or no. The key question in open source is whether there is a CLA or not. CLAs are a huge source of friction, and with corporate control, dangerous. You talk about "respecting OSGeo values", but in my view copyright assignment to a company that can proprietarize is totally inconsistent with values.

So if you want to tone down the shoulds, and just ask.:

How do you handle copyright issues:

then I think that's fine.

jodygarnett commented 11 months ago

Good discussion:

How do you handle copyright issues:

I think this is the question “How does your team manage copyright of your source code and documentation?”

We not wish to presume they handle it at all yet :) it may be a topic they need help on.

Based on the answer we should learn a lot.

gdt commented 11 months ago

I think it would be good first to have the criteria for the "osgeo community" step, "begin incubation" step, and "graduate incubation". That seems to be a major area of disagreement and/or confusion. I see your point about projects that don't understand yet, but I see corporate projects that do understand and are misaligned as a more serious issue.

jodygarnett commented 11 months ago

The harder we work on this - the more I am thinking it is not a good document for osgeo in 2023. I do like use markdown to make it easier for projects to copy and paste into their own wiki.

I expect we should create a single document to cover 1) osgeo website 2) osgeo community 3) osgeo project

You can see the progression:

I am going to close this and await further discussion on the email list.