Writing Myself Out of the Script

I was fortunate to have a lightning talk slot at the 2005 Open Source Geospatial conference. Among other things, I talked about my changing priorities. I said that MapScript (and MapServer) were practically complete and that I'd be working more and more on the Python Cartographic Library and PrimaGIS. Now, a year later, I'm finally making it official. Howard Butler is taking over stewardship of MapServer's Python language bindings. Umberto Nicoletti and Tamas Szekeres are taking charge of the Java and C# bindings. I'm also resigning my seat on MapServer's Technical Steering Committee. It's too hard to be a good leader in both the PCL and MapServer projects, and I'd be embarrassed to be a non-participating member of the TSC.

Although I didn't accomplish everything I'd wanted, I've had a positive impact on the MapServer project. I recruited and mentored new committers. People are happy with the Linux-style odd/even version numbering. The unit tests did make MapScript more robust. There's even a slowly increasing recognition of how dearly MapServer needs to be refactored. I'm satisfied. Good luck, MapServer! It's been a fun and rewarding ride. Long may you run.