Service Provider Directory

A frequent request of organizations wanting to use open source geospatial software, is for suggestions on individual consultants, or companies providing services for the various software packages. In the past some projects have made an effort to list those offering services around the project, but a more holistic approach to this by OSGeo would be of substantial value to the projects, the service providers, and most importantly to the organizations looking to implement solutions.

However, maintaining a list service providers is fraught with peril for OSGeo. It is important that we do so in a manner that is fair to the service providers (impartial), but avoids OSGeo judging or recommending service provider capabilities.

= Provider Details =

It is proposed that WebCom maintain a service provider registry on the web site with the following attributes for each service provider:


 * Organization (or individual) name.
 * URL to service providers off-site web page with service details, etc.
 * A list of packages/technologies the service provider provides services for (from a predefined pick list).
 * A list of (human) languages the organization can provide service in.
 * A list of office locations (perhaps city/country with lat/long coordinates) for the service provider.
 * An employee count for the organization.
 * An email contact for the organization (not normally displayed - used for administrative purposes)
 * The date of last information update (not normally displayed - used for administrative purposes)

Implementation plan:
 * Page with all the above fields compulsory
 * Off-site page with more detailed information and some more e.g. short description for reference which is optional
 * Same page has editing interface to change existing entries

= Vetting =

It is important to realize that OSGeo does not have the resources to review and "vette" the entries in any great detail. We are essentially providing a mechanism for service providers to list themselves, but we make no specific effort to determine if the information they provide is correct. We will have to publish appropriate disclaimers to this effect.

It is possible we will need a mechanism to deal with complaints about the accuracy/appropriateness of a directory entry. Not anticipating many complaints, I would suggest that WebCom be responsible for preliminary negotiation of complaints. If the complaintant or service provider is not satisfied then the issue be bumped up to the board. If this turns out to be a frequent problem we can develop a more streamlined procedure.

Implementation plan: act as arbitrators and decide whether the complaint is authentic or not and accordingly take action (ignore/warn provider/remove provider)
 * Disclaimer
 * Each complaint will be available for discussion to the WebCom members, some small group of individuals will have to

= Web Display =

The web page for the service provider directory should ultimately provide means to query based on each of the attributes (packages, languages, location, and employee count), though to start we might just offer the whole list. The directory should be randomly ordered, so that no service provider gets top billing by virtual of when they registered.

Implementation plan:
 * Search page with all possible fields
 * Facility to see complete list
 * As a result, entries with very basic information as Name ,Technology and may optional short description will be displayed
 * Each entry will lead to some more specific details on new page for the selected provider.
 * In future, we may have some comparison page for some (possibly not more than some number) selected search results on some criteria (to start with only for technology and language support).
 * Or search result will have proper pagination and search page itself will have all the details included so no need to navigate for each and every result.

= Updates =

Entries should be updated annually. On or near a year from the last update, the contact address should be emailed, and the service provider encouraged to update their page - even if only to save it "as is" updating the last update date. Any entry not updated for 24 months should be dropped, and the contact notified by email.

This all assumes the entries can be maintained by a logged in user to the Drupal site, and that an entry, once created, would be "owned" by a drupal user.

Implementation plan:
 * Will be implemented using the edit entry page

= Prototyping =

Tyler has already prototyped this capability on the Drupal site...
 * Here is the very rough example of the data entry form. The BusinessProfile type should be available to all users under the Create Content menu item.
 * And here is a simple example of how the info from many entries is aggregated together. This will be improved so that duplicate entries are not shown for each Technology entered.

To be Done

 * Businesses should only appear once, currently it seems they get multiplied by spatial references. Businesses should appear in a spatial context, after all we are the Whatever Geospatial Foundation (WMS, WFS and the like).
 * More languages should be added as businesses join from different backgrounds