History

PSC Meeting November 2015

"previous meeting": http://hub.qgis.org/projects/quantum-gis/wiki/PSC_Meeting_October_2015

"next meeting": http://hub.qgis.org/projects/quantum-gis/wiki/PSC_Meeting_December_2015

Google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NxarMWTtYDkdkbFd8LxMY5YVWRUzjyeuV5V5c2Qm-dY/edit?usp=sharing

Logs

QGIS PSC Meeting 6 November 2015

Present:
  • Tim Sutton
  • Paolo Cavallini
  • Jürgen Fischer
  • Anita
  • Andreas
  • Richard
  • Marco
  • Gary

Agenda:
________

  1. Feedback from last meeting:
    1. Anita: to write to Astrid to confirm that we would like to hold the HF in Bonn - Aug 2016 (at least 40-50 people) ask for possible overflow room: Done, but no reply from Astrid yet - done - still no feedback - try again for next meeting? Anita: try calling Astrid on phone since mail doesn't seem to work ? done: confirmed 40-50 people from 21-23rd Aug (“basecamp” location”) ? Anita: ask about organization of snacks & set up wiki page
    2. Paolo: to write to individual devs who might still want reimbursements - no news
    3. Andreas: to recontact Lyon (Oslandia) - try again for next meeting? - abandon
    4. Andreas:
      1. To move bank account to QGIS.org after signing - in progress
      2. Create a business registry entry so that we get a registered business number - in progress
    5. Richard: Create user accounts for all PSC members - for what I (Richard) know now we are not allowed to give out more than 10 email addresses with our free Google plan - Richard: ask Andreas to contact Google for more (remark Andreas: would like to wait until organization is established - would be easier!) - in progress (waiting on board finalisation)
    6. Tim: Registration of QGIS user groups - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1thQ11_7J9ZrNunMsYDW0BLWsYa0kqQPaaTItxRQT-h8/viewform?usp=send_form - in progress
      1. website
      2. mailing list
      3. member count
      4. founding year
    7. Anita: “please let me know if I should raise this point with OSGeo if you think it would be a good move from OSGeo to offer these certificates to their projects.” ? will contact Richard with any follow-up questions before the OSGeo board meeting - done,
    8. Richard: Follow up questions for Larry:
    9. It is certainly negotiable. They said "sure!" to having the website line under the download link (and no background image notification), but would like to know if "Provided by Boundless" can also have a link to http://boundlessgeo.com, and whether a small logo can be added.
      For situations where the DMG installer is distributed without users going to the download page, a simple acknowledgement line at the end of the README inside the DMG would work, or something in the About dialog (though I am unsure where in that dialog would be appropriate). Regarding the latter, I would prefer not to touch any of the source tree during compilation, only QGIS.app bundle items or DMG contents.
      The README is necessary since it explains how to use the .app bundle for developing plugins and should contain info on licensing, source code download, etc.
      1. Can they acknowledge Boundless in the installer readme?
        1. Tim +1
        2. Anita +1
        3. Andreas +1
        4. Richard +1
        5. Marco +1
        6. Paolo +1
        7. Jürgren +1
        8. Gary +1
      2. Can they add logo on download page?
        1. Tim -1
        2. Anita -1
        3. Richard -1
        4. Andreas -1
        5. Marco -1
        6. Paolo -1
        7. Jürgen -1
        8. Gary -1
      3. Can they add reference to boundless (“provided by Boundless” with link ) on download page (along with since XXXX year)?
        1. Tim +1
        2. Andreas +1
        3. Anita +1
        4. Paolo +1
        5. Richard +1
        6. Marco +1
        7. Jürgen +1
        8. Gary +1
      4. Motion to add norBIT to download page under appropriate sections along with (since XXXX year).
        1. Anita +1
        2. Tim +1
        3. Marco +1
        4. Paolo +1
        5. Jürgen +1
        6. Richard +1
        7. Gary +1
    10. Tim: Self hosting our blog (I didn’t realise we were going to have ugly ads on our posts when hosted under wp)
      FYI: No adds package costs: $30 per year https://qgisblog.wordpress.com/wp-admin/paid-upgrades.php (cheaper than administation of our own blogging platform I guess) ? Anita will buy the upgrade ? done - to claim reimbursement from Andreas together with her hackfest reimbursement request
    11. Tim: Proposed dates for QGIS User Conference in 2016 - in progress Tim to finalise for next meeting
    12. Jürgen: Proposal for identifying improved way of identifying bugs to be fixed - waiting for access to paypal - which is waiting on the legal entity
      1. Tie donations to tickets so that you can figure out which bugs are important based on the amount of money allocated to the ticket (see "Bugfix funding idea" on qgis-psc-private)
      2. Concerns: Amount of effort
      3. We agree to try it and see how it works out:
        1. Tim +1
        2. Anita +1
        3. Paolo +1
        4. Richard +1
        5. Jürgen +1
        6. Gary +1
  2. Organization:
    1. Swiss trade registry entry: who should be registered as board members? Note that the actual signatories on legal agreements will depend on who we sign a contract with.
      1. Suggestion: Tim, Paolo, Andreas and Marco
        1. Tim +1
        2. Anita +0
        3. Jürgen +0
        4. Richard +1
        5. Marco +1
        6. Andreas +1
        7. Gary +0
      2. Trade registry URL (sample Sourcepole AG): http://zh.powernet.ch/webservices/net/HRG/HRG.asmx/getHRGHTML?chnr=CH-320.3.051.002-8&amt=020&toBeModified=0&validOnly=0&lang=1&sort=
      3. Note that mutations in this registry cost money (20CHF)
    2. Access to bank account: suggestion: Paolo and Andreas
      1. Tim +1
      2. Anita +1
      3. Richard +1
      4. Marco +1
      5. Jürgen +1
      6. Paolo +0
      7. Gary +0
    3. Publishing our statutes on the Website - Tim todo
    4. Publishing our company number on the Website and link to trade registry - Andreas
    5. Transfer the trademark to QGIS.ORG (after registration is finalised) - Paolo
    6. Transfer the dns to QGIS.ORG - Tim
    7. Hetzner server, find out how to do that Richard
  3. (Crowd)funding campaign for 2 developers
    1. Andreas and Tim have done some rough calculations and would like to propose that we kick off a crowdfunding / sponsorship programme for:
      1. managing Github (PRs and issues) + QEPs?
      2. bug fixing
      3. working on tests
      4. core development work
    2. Application to https://www.packard.org for funding,
    3. full time dev positions:
      1. open for applications by core developers only?
      2. full time preferred - full focus on QGIS - no divided attention problems
    4. Resurfacing the QGIS Prospectus https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VKXn2GYC9DsmeMJ34w1v3Ui1n0bQ7dKDjkSVUo6omCk/edit#heading=h.vsn0jtq85cwo
    5. The funds gathered for the developer would be separate from ‘normal’ sponsor and donation funds.
    6. We need to put together an ‘acknowledgement’ package for funders (e.g. banners)
    7. Marco to provide input on gross salary requirement (including taxes and pensions)
    8. Board to help compile a list of potential donor sources
  4. Improving QGIS processing
    1. Processing test suite: discussing proposal from Matthias/Victor
      1. YML for data driven testing
      2. Python test generators
      3. https://github.com/behave/behave
      4. Agreement to continue with Matthias’s funded testing infrastructure project:
        1. Tim +1
        2. Gary +1
        3. Otto
        4. Anita +1
        5. Juergen +1
        6. Richard +1
        7. Paolo +1
        8. Andreas +1
        9. Marco
    2. Matthias has been getting PyQt5 and Python 3
      1. Possibility for semi-automatically upgrade python 2 -> 3 using some scripts
    3. Finishing multithreading work: waiting for proposal from Victor/Alex
      1. Victor needs to do further checking
      2. Many algs will need to be adapted to use the new framework
      3. Possibly task is too big for a student to finish in the time available
      4. Post report on blog.qgis.org to thank Marcus for his work (the student) - Tim / Marcus
  5. Discussing release interval:
    1. Proposal to change release cadence to : 6 months after 3.0
      1. Tim -1
      2. Richard +1
      3. Marco -1
      4. Andreas +1
      5. Paolo -1
      6. Jürgen -1
      7. Anita -1
      8. Gary +0
    2. difficulty in skipping versions - due to project migration issues
      1. Suggestion: migration issues (eg. opening old projects) are blockers for LTR versions
        1. Anita +1
        2. Richard -1 (I think it is not realistic because of the current pace and way we do the project files/xml)
      2. Collect test cases with data for direct upgrade from version 2.8 to 2.14
    3. Especially corporate/gov users want longer release intervals. Given that these are the ones who pay our bills, we should take them seriously
  6. Financial situation:
    1. Bank balance Nov 1: 33920.17
    2. Confirmed upcoming Income
      1. 3.5k Euros confirmed sponsorships
      2. 2-3k Euros from Paypal (based on our previous numbers)
      3. 2-3k Euros for 4-6 bronze sponsorship renewals
      4. Total: 7.5 to 9.5k
    3. Known upcoming expenses
      1. Python API documentation 2.5k Euros
      2. Documentation (Manual): 2.6k Euros
      3. rest of 2.12 bug fixing: 6-7k Euros
      4. Management bug queue 2.12 (Giovanni): 1k Euros
      5. Dev meeting Gran Canaria: 5-10k Euros
      6. Processing test suite: 5.5k Euros
      7. Total: approx. 22.6 to 28.6k Euros