Difference between revisions of "General Principles of Incubation"

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This document is meant to be a guide to the incubation process in general. The goal is to introduce you to the concept of incubation in open source and how we do it here at OSGeo.org. It is currently a work in progress.
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==Revision Notes==
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* The official 1.0 version of this document, from July 2006 is at: http://www.osgeo.org/incubator/process/principles.html
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* This document is proposed to be retired, as its contents are mostly duplicated by other documents, or out of date.
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* Identifiers have been added to this wiki version, as well as references to equivalent words from other documents.
  
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== Introduction ==
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== Purpose of Incubation ==
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The purpose of the OSGeo incubation process is to ensure that projects that are officially part of OSGeo:
  
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Open Source (OS) is often associated with anarchy or certain rights to do as you please. However, software is complex, hard to manage, and most software projects are prone to total failure or riddled with debilitating bugs. The story is true in OS as well as proprietarily produced software. The simplistic view is that software is software. The primary difference between OS and proprietary software is that in OS, we can all see the code and in some cases see the process of code creation.  
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* <span id="1">1</span>. have a successfully operating open and collaborative development community. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#open.2]]
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* <span id="2">2</span>. have clear IP oversight of the code base of the project. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#Copyright_and_License]]
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* <span id="3">3</span>. adopt the OSGeo principles and operating principles. Ref: [[#Operating_Principles]]
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* <span id="4">4</span>. are mentored through the incubation process.
  
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The key to success for software is elusive. There is no silver bullet. However, we can say that there are a few things that can contribute to success:
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== Principles of OSGeo Projects (The OSGeo Way) ==
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* Some type of leadership and/or decision process
 
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* A process for changes to the code
 
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* Documentation (design and end-user docs)
 
  
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Software is useless without end-users, so we want to ensure that the project targets the end-user. This also helps by reducing the time that the project developers have to spend on support. Here are a few things important to end-users:
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* <span id="5">5</span>. Projects should manage themselves, striving for consensus and encouraging participation from all contributors - from beginning users to advanced developers. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#open.2]]
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* <span id="6">6</span>. Contributors are the scarce resource and successful projects court and encourage them. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#open.2]]
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* <span id="7">7</span>. Projects are encouraged to adopt open standards and collaborate with other OSGeo projects. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#Projects]]
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* <span id="8">8</span>. Projects are responsible for reviewing and controlling their code bases to insure the integrity of the open source baselines. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#Copyright_and_License]]
  
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* End-user documentation
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== Operating Principles ==
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* user email lists for supporting user questions
 
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* Issue Management (on OSGeo we user Project Tracker)
 
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* Home page and content (including documentation)
 
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* Simple to use downloads with automated installation
 
  
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The OSGeo Foundation has a few things that need to be done:
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* <span id="9">9</span>. Projects should document how they manage themselves. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#processes.3]]
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* <span id="10">10</span>. Projects should maintain developer and user documentation. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#Documentation]]
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* <span id="11">11</span>. Projects should maintain a source code management system. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#processes.1]]
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* <span id="12">12</span>. Projects should maintain a discrepancy tracking system. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#processes.2]]
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* <span id="13">13</span>. Projects should maintain project mailing lists. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#processes.2b]]
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* <span id="14">14</span>. Projects should actively promote their participation in OSGeo. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#Marketing]]
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* <span id="15">15</span>. Projects are encouraged to adopt OSGeo look and feel, branding, [[Logos | logos]] on their project sites. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#Marketing]]
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* <span id="16">16</span>. Projects are encouraged to participate in OSGeo standardization efforts to present a common interface for OSGeo visitors and members. [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#Marketing]]
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* <span id="17">17</span>. Projects should have automated build and smoke test systems. Ref: [[Project_Graduation_Checklist#release.2]]
  
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* Intellectual Property verification of ownership and choice of OS license
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[[Category:Incubation]]
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* Contact with owners of the project
 
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* A review of the merits of the project and if it is worthy of hosting at OSGeo.org
 
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* Ensuring that the project is healthy
 
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Intellectual Property verification is required for due diligence. It helps us all ensure the code is truly open source and that the licenses have been applied directly. The foundation is a legal entity and should cover its self. The license is also imortant as we must ensure that the open source license you are using is compatible with the foundation.
 
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Incubation is aimed at getting the above items to be done in some manner. The actual processes, content, and organization of the OS project is less important in this process as the actual execution and verification that these things are done. Incubation is meant to ensure that the project is ready and will succeed within the bounds of the foundation and that the foundation can help the project succeed.
 
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[https://incubator.osgeo.org/servlets/ReadMsg?listName=incubator&msgNo=224 Mark Lucas' thoughts on incubation]
 

Latest revision as of 12:52, 29 October 2015

Revision Notes

  • The official 1.0 version of this document, from July 2006 is at: http://www.osgeo.org/incubator/process/principles.html
  • This document is proposed to be retired, as its contents are mostly duplicated by other documents, or out of date.
  • Identifiers have been added to this wiki version, as well as references to equivalent words from other documents.

Purpose of Incubation

The purpose of the OSGeo incubation process is to ensure that projects that are officially part of OSGeo:

Principles of OSGeo Projects (The OSGeo Way)

Operating Principles

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