MapServer Foundation kick-off

Related link: http://www.mapserverfoundation.org/open_letter.html

This is the year of fulfilled dreams for me. The first one was finishing my book. Today's announcement brings my count to two!

The creation of a non-profit organisation around MapServer technologies has been a dream of mine for a couple of years. No longer do you need to listen to my perennial pining about the need for an independent, non-profit, support organisation for the MapServer community. It is finally being launched with some strong momentum and promising support. For more details, please read the open letter.

New to the open source web mapping world is Autodesk. They are releasing their new web mapping platform as open source and donating the code to the MapServer Foundation. They are also graciously providing the necessary funding to get the foundation up and running. Welcome aboard Autodesk!

I'm really excited about the potential that the foundation has. For one, I'm looking forward to a third-party organisation that can provide long-term stability to developer and community resources. This will be good for MapServer and the open source geospatial community.

So get into the discussion, sign up to the mailing lists and make your voice heard. What key roles do you see a foundation being able to help fill?