Latest revision as of 14:44, 17 April 2017

Reducing scope of OSGeo-Live for next 11.0 release

17 April 2017

For our next OSGeo-Live release, 11.0, we propose to reduce the number of packages included, and only support a 64 bit distribution, (32 bit will be built but not tested or officially supported).

Factors leading to this suggestion include:

Some projects have dwindling communities and momentum.
Increased OSGeo-Live scope has increased our core maintenance and testing.
Reduced engagement from projects (partly due to less core time spent reaching out to projects)
Missing our first release milestone in 9 years.

From our options of reduce quality, become more efficient, increase volunteer engagement, find a sponsor to support core activities, and reduce scope, reducing scope is our most viable and acceptable option. Other ideas are welcomed.

Questions we will ask in assessing which projects to keep include:

Is there an ACTIVE OSGeo-Live liaison person/people for the project? Prior list is copied to "Contact" column at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Q5BaEgQtgw4O1bXyeWMlM8XtAOhUgcjZ7Y2O0FZc2H0/edit?hl=en_GB#gid=2014800150
Has the Project Overview and Quickstart been reviewed and are they current and complete?
Do OpenHub metrics reflect an active and healthy community: https://live.osgeo.org/en/metrics.html
Is the project being updated on OSGeo-Live with each release?

Key Milestones

5-Jun-2017 OSGeo-Live Feature Freeze (final application versions installed)

19-Jun-2017 OSGeo-Live delivered to UAT (final application versions installed - Beta stage)

24-Jul-2017 OSGeo-Live Final ISO

14-Aug-2017 FOSS4G 2017 Boston

... full schedule

About OSGeo-Live

OSGeo-Live (http://live.osgeo.org) is a Lubuntu based distribution of Geospatial Open Source Software, available via a Live DVD, Virtual Machine and USB. You can use OSGeo-Live to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software without installing anything.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-=Descoping OSGeo-Live  for next 11.0 release=
+=Reducing scope of OSGeo-Live for next 11.0 release=
 April 2017
-We are starting the build cycle for our next OSGeo-Live release, 11.0, and for this release we will be de-scoping what is included. There are a few factors leading to this decision:
+For our next OSGeo-Live release, 11.0, we propose to reduce the number of packages included, and only support a 64 bit distribution, (32 bit will be built but not tested or officially supported).
-# While many OSGeo projects are consistently improving and growing, others have been gradually loosing their communities and are not being maintained.
-# OSGeo-Live build processes have been continuously been improving, allowing us to build more applications more efficiently, now supporting both 64 bit and 32 bit architectures - however this creates a larger testing load for the team.
-# OSGeo-Live is growing from just a marketing tool to also being used as the core virtual machine used in many FOSS4G and OSGeo related workshops and training sessions, and there is a desire to focus more on establishing these initiatives.
-# With the last couple of releases, we haven't been as successful at engaging projects to help with reviewing, testing and maintaining applications, project overviews and quickstarts, putting greater pressure on the core team.
-# With our 10.5 release, for the first time in 8 years we have missed a release deadline.
-Consequently, we have needed to admit to ourselves that we need to fit our scope to be within our resources.
+Factors leading to this suggestion include:
-So, we are faced with the choices of:
+# Some projects have dwindling communities and momentum.
-# Reduce quality
+# Increased OSGeo-Live scope has increased our core maintenance and testing.
-# Become more efficient
+# Reduced engagement from projects (partly due to less core time spent reaching out to projects)
-# Increase volunteer base
+# Missing our first release milestone in 9 years.
-# Find a sponsor for paid resources to cover core work
-# Reduce scope
-We feel strongly about maintaining quality. Demonstration of OSGeo quality is one of our core project goals.
+From our options of reduce quality, become more efficient, increase volunteer engagement, find a sponsor to support core activities, and reduce scope, reducing scope is our most viable and acceptable option. Other ideas are welcomed.
-We have been improving efficiency for many releases now, which has allowed us to grow and improve as much as we have. There isn't much scope for improving more.
+Questions we will ask in assessing which projects to keep include:
+# Is there an ACTIVE OSGeo-Live liaison person/people for the project? Prior list is copied to "Contact" column at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Q5BaEgQtgw4O1bXyeWMlM8XtAOhUgcjZ7Y2O0FZc2H0/edit?hl=en_GB#gid=2014800150
-We have had the pleasure of having some new people join our core team, and we will endevour to become more engaged with each of the OSGeo communities with the next release.
+# Has the Project Overview and Quickstart been reviewed and are they current and complete?
+# Do OpenHub metrics reflect an active and healthy community: https://live.osgeo.org/en/metrics.html
-If anyone knows of a potential sponsor, please let us know
+# Is the project being updated on OSGeo-Live with each release?
-We are starting osgeolive 11 release. This time, we beleive we need to de-scope for a few reasons. 1. There are included projects which have lost community and probably shouldn’t be recommended by us. 2. We have been continually increasing what we have taken on and we have capped out our volunteer effort. 3. We missed our last deadline for the first time, and we don’t like doing that. Either we need to descope, reduce quality, or get more resources (volunteers or sponsorship). We will be reaching out to communities and asking for help getting projects up to date and quickstarts up to date and help with testing. But we will also be planning to drop some projects. (I think we should also drop 32 bit).
-We are starting the build cycle for version 11.0 of the [http://live.osgeo.org OSGeo-Live] DVD/USB/VM which will be released in August 2016, ready for the global FOSS4G conference in Bonn, Germany.
-This release is going to be more challenging than usual as we be moving to the next Long Term Release (LTS) of Ubuntu,16.04 Xenial. We expect to be asking for help to solve the multitude of dependency conflicts likely to be introduced. In particular, we expect most debian packages and bash installers will need tweaking once an alpha OSGeo-Live build is working. Initial packaging efforts have started and the Debian packages will soon appear in UbuntuGIS Unstable (currently in Testing).
-We would like to hear from anyone wishing to add new projects to OSGeo-Live, anyone wishing to extend or add translations, or anyone who has ideas on how we should shape the upcoming release.
 ==Key Milestones==
-:  xx
+:  5-Jun-2017	OSGeo-Live Feature Freeze (final application versions installed)
+: 19-Jun-2017	OSGeo-Live delivered to UAT (final application versions installed - Beta stage)
+: 24-Jul-2017	OSGeo-Live Final ISO
+: 14-Aug-2017 FOSS4G 2017 Boston
 [http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Al9zh8DjmU_RdE1SYUN3YWJ2N1NpSUczbW9IRWZNclE&hl=en_GB ... full schedule]
 ==About OSGeo-Live==
-OSGeo-live is a [http://lubuntu.net Lubuntu] based distribution of Geospatial Open Source Software, available via a Live DVD, Virtual Machine and USB. You can use OSGeo-Live to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software without installing anything.
+OSGeo-Live (http://live.osgeo.org) is a [http://lubuntu.net Lubuntu] based distribution of Geospatial Open Source Software, available via a Live DVD, Virtual Machine and USB. You can use OSGeo-Live to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software without installing anything.
 [[Category: Live-demo]]

Difference between revisions of "Live GIS Disc Press Release 75"

Latest revision as of 14:44, 17 April 2017

Reducing scope of OSGeo-Live for next 11.0 release

Key Milestones

About OSGeo-Live

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