MapGuide RFC 83 - Project Sponsorship

This page contains an change request (RFC) for the MapGuide Open Source project. More MapGuide RFCs can be found on the RFCs page.

Status

RFC Template Version	(1.0)
Submission Date	August 25, 2009
Last Modified	Trevor Wekel October 21, 2009
Author	Trevor Wekel
RFC Status	adopted
Implementation Status	In progress
Proposed Milestone	2.2
Assigned PSC guide(s)	Trevor Wekel
Voting History	October 8, 2009
+1	Jason, Bob, Bruce, Tom, Andy, Paul, Trevor
+0
-0
-1
no vote	Haris, Kenneth

Overview

This RFC details the uses, process, and benefits of project sponsorship and donations for MapGuide Open Source.

Motivation

Project sponsorship is a key aspect to maintaining any open source project. It gives the PSC funding to help move the project forward. At the moment, MapGuide Open Source is relying on donations of time from the community and the project steering committee.

This is working to some extent but many individuals can only donate part of their time. This may be having an effect on the MapGuide Open Source release cycle. Crispin at 1Spatial recently posted a status inquiry on MapGuide Internals list regarding the 2.1 release date:

Please take this as a positive request for information! The MapGuide 2.1 release was originally scheduled for July 2008, then October 2008 and then moved to the current April 2008 (4 months late).

Based on Crispin's information, MapGuide 2.1 is more than a year behind schedule. This is problematic. Sponsorship and donation funding would help.

Proposed Solution

The following solution has been shamelessly compiled from the sponsorship pages of the ​GDAL/OGR, ​GRASS GIS, and ​OpenLayers projects.

Uses

Project sponsorship and donation funding would be used for the following purposes under the direction of the PSC:

• Addressing bug reports - reproducing then fixing or passing on to another developer.
• Extending, and running the test suite.
• Compiling and managing appropriate data sets for testing.
• Improving documentation.
• Other improvements to the software.
• General user support on the mailing list.
• Rental of hardware and/or virtual machines for a multi-platform build and test environment.
• Maintenance and setup of a code review tool.

Benefits

Sponsoring MapGuide provides the following benefits:

1. Ensures the sustainability and health of the MapGuide project.
2. All sponsors will be optionally listed on the project Sponsors/Donors page, ordered by contribution class (Platinum, Gold, Silver) with a link back to the sponsor. Silver sponsors and above may include a logo. Platinum sponsors may also have a logo appearing on the MapGuide home page.
3. Sponsors will be permitted to indicate they are project sponsors in web and other promotional materials, and use any future MapGuide Open Source logo to indicate such support.
4. Sponsor input on project focus and direction will be solicited via a survey.
5. Sponsors will received a degree of priority in processing of bug reports by any maintainer hired with sponsorship funds.
6. Sponsors will receive a detailed report annually on the use of sponsorship funds.

Donating to MapGuide provides the following benefits:

1. Ensures the sustainability and health of the MapGuide project.
2. Donors who contribute $50 USD or more will be optionally listed on the project Sponsors/Donors page after the project sponsors.

Process

Sponsors can sponsor MapGuide for any amount of money of at least $500 USD. At or above the following levels a sponsor will be designated as being one of the following class:

1. $27000+ USD: Platinum Sponsor
2. $9000+ USD: Gold Sponsor
3. $3000+ USD: Silver Sponsor

Sponsorships last one year, after which they may be continuing with a new payment, or allowed to lapse. OSGeo is planning to be US 501(c)3 charity and sponsorships will be eligible as a charitable contribution for US taxpayers. Appropriate receipts can be issued when needed.

An OSGeo PayPal "donate" button will be set up to accept sponsorship and donation funds. Organizations or individuals interested in sponsoring the MapGuide project should contact Trevor Wekel (trevor_wekel@…, +1 403 870 1582) with questions, or to make alternate arrangements.

Donors may contribute any amount through the OSGeo PayPal "donate" button.

Implications

MapGuide will continue to grow and flourish as an open source project.

Funding/Resources

Supplied by MapGuide sponsors.

Addendums

Bob suggested we need a process to handle sponsor related defects. One solution is to use the Trac reported by and cc fields to classify "sponsor" defects and hold a regular IRC bug scrub/prioritization meeting with a subset of the PSC to determine which defects to address.