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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 Timestamp |
| Author | Trevor Wekel |
| RFC Status | draft |
| Implementation Status | under development |
| Proposed Milestone | 2.2 |
| Assigned PSC guide(s) | Trevor Wekel |
| Voting History | (vote date) |
| +1 | |
| +0 | |
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| -1 | |
| no vote |
Overview
This RFC details the uses, process, and benefits of project sponsorship 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 funding would give the PSC a pool of funds to work with to help speed up the development and release lifecycle of MapGuide Open Source.
Proposed Solution
The following solution has been shamelessly compiled from the sponsorship pages of the GDAL/OGR, GRASS GIS, and OpenLayers projects. Project sponsorship 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.
- Rental of hardware and/or virtual machines for a multi-platform build and test environment.
- Improving documentation.
- Other improvements to the software.
- General user support on the mailing list.
MapGuide will follow a similar sponsorship process to the GDAL/OGR and OpenLayers. Sponsors can sponsor MapGuide through OSGeo for any amount of money of at least $500 USD. Sponsors can opt to have their name listed on the (future) MapGuide project sponsorship page linked from the http://mapguide.osgeo.org website. At or above the following levels a sponsor will be designated as being one of the following class:
- $27000+ USD: Platinum Sponsor
- $9000+ USD: Gold Sponsor
- $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.
Implications
MapGuide will continue to grow and flourish as an open source project.
Test Plan
Funding/Resources
Supplied by MapGuide sponsors.
