Incubation Follow-Up

Last week I objected to the OSGeo Foundation overselling the rigorousness of their software incubation process, and challenged the incubation committee to raise their standards. The sitting OSGeo president, Frank Warmerdam, wrote (in comments) to suggest that I could have worked within the committee, using vetos to hold back projects until they'd made serious progress.

I'm a programmer, not a politician, and I've no interest in playing politics like that. I've got many other better things to do with my time. There are tests to write, tickets to be resolved, milestones to be set, and code to be released. And the other folks in the committee wouldn't stand for it. I'd be tarred and feathered. Every project in the incubator has been guaranteed that they'll be promoted. Every member of the committee (except for me, at the time) is also representing an incubating or "on-deck" project, and there is rather high social pressure on committee members to not impede each other's projects.

Does unwillingness to spend a big chunk of free time trying to reform the incubation committee disqualify me from criticising the process? Not in the least. I'm an open source geospatial software developer too, and will be profoundly affected by the actions of OSGeo. Let me try a metaphor on you: I'm not the guy in the back seat of your car second-guessing how you drive, I'm the guy on the bicycle yelling at you to drive carefully.