GvSIG Technical Steering Committee

This page contains a summary of how gvSIG is technically managed, which groups are on the project to manage the technical decisions and how they operate in order to assure the decisions are made in a democratic way, etc.

The Technical Steering Committee (TSC) of gvSIG is a group of more than 20 people who are all experts in the different technical areas of the project (3D, mobile devices, documentation, internationalization ,...). Most of them have been working in the gvSIG project for some years and they belong to different entities, both universities, private companies and public administrations.

Objectives of the TSC
The Technical Steering Committee is the highest technical authority of the project and it decides on important aspects such as:


 * new functionalities to develop
 * software engineering (architecture, methodologies, etc.)
 * project documentation
 * collaborative infrastructure

The Board of Directors of the TSC
This group is composed of the technical leaders of the project. All they are part of the TSC and they have the responsibility to make the most important technical decisions, always based on proposals prepared by the TSC. Therefore, all the members of this group have the highest degree of commitment to the gvSIG project.

The first Board was established as a result of a proposal by the Regional Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport of Valencia region (Spain).

This group has ordinary meetings (mostly face to face, but also via IM) every two weeks with documented agenda and minutes. (Please add link if possible)

Coordinator of the TSC
One member of the executive TSC acts as the coordinator of the entire committee and his main responsibility is to ensure fluid communication both within the group and with the rest of the project. At this time Jorge Sanz is the coordinator of the gvSIG TSC.

Working groups
The TSC works through working groups. A new working group is created to manage a new proposal or a new task of some complexity and  a member of the executive TSC is appointed as responsible person for it. That person reports to the executive TSC at regular meetings on the progress that his working group is making. Moreover, a working group is not composed exclusively of members of the TSC, any expert on the subject who belongs to the Community can participate.

These working groups are organized into communication spaces in which they communicate, edit documents collaboratively, and so on. Some of these working groups have one aim in the medium to long term and they prepare proposals to the executive TSC, whereas other working groups are born with a clear objective and therefore they are dissolved when they obtain their objective.

Adding new members to the TSC
The first group of members of the TSC was selected by the executive TSC in an initial round. The members of this group were chosen owing to both its technical capabilities and the role which each member had in the different production areas of the project.

Now, after this initial testing phase, the TSC can elect its new members. Any member can propose the incorporation of a new member from the gvSIG community and the TSC in full must vote.

Stepping down
Any member can retire from the TSC voluntarily. Other times, the executive TSC has to make the final decision if it's necessary to propose to fire a member of the TSC because of different reasons:


 * Thoughtless behaviour with any other member of the TSC
 * Serious lack of consideration on a public forum with the gvSIG project
 * Continued lack of activity on the TSC (voting, participating on working groups)
 * Incompatibility with the TSC activities due to:
 * Lack of time to work on the TSC
 * Conflict of interest between the TSC or gvSIG and the current employer of the member