foss4g-2017.org

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#+latex_header: \subtitle{ORFEO ToolBox license change from CeCILL to Apache : diary of a long journey}

* Introduction
** Introduction
*** About me
    - My name is [[https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Grizonnetm][Manuel Grizonnet]]
    - I work at CNES (the French Space Agency) 
    - I am involved in the Open Source library for remote sensing image processing Orfeo ToolBox
    - Also an occasional contributor to OSGeo-Live, OSSIM and QGIS
*** Topic
    - Talk about changing the license of a ten years old open source project
    - the /strategy/ that we used to change the license of a 10 years old project
    - Why we decide to make this change, things that we learn
    - More generally how the OTB governance works
    - Recap of the OTB OSGeo incubation process
* Things to know about OTB
** What is Orfeo ToolBox?
   - A *C++ library* for image processing, based on ITK
   - *90+ remote sensing applications*
   - *Monteverdi*, a satellite image viewer (hardware accelerated, raw products)
   - Accessible from C++, Bash, GUI, Python, QGIS, Monteverdi, WPS (Zoo)
   - *Big Data* (buzzword detected here!) capable, thanks to built-in streaming, multithreading
    and MPI
   - Apache v2.0 license (since release 6.0) before CeCILL v2
   - Funded and developed by CNES (French Space Agency)
   - Used at CNES, ESA, mission exploitation platforms, remote sensing labs, teaching\ldots
   - Built on the shoulders of giants (ITK, GDAL, OSSIM, OpenCV\ldots)
   - *An OSGeo project since July 2017!* 
** Feature extraction
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** Segmentation
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   [[file:images/segmentation.png]]
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** Large scale supervised classification (CESBIO - OSO project)
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* Moving from CeCILL to Apache
** Before talking about license change
   - Changing the license can be a pain to deal with
   - But technical details like code review, CLA, Copyright are perhaps not the most
     important thing at the end
   - So I will talk more about governance, about communication with the community\ldots
   - \ldots and less about technical details of the license change
   - Explain how OTB starts by setting up a more open governance first with a Project
     Steering Committee
   - And how to deal about big changes like this in the most open "way" 

** OTB history
   - Start in 2006
   - Always be a Free and Open Source project
   - Mostly supported from the French Space Agency CNES
   - Always encourage and integrate contributions
   - Code, documentation, mailing lists, everything is public since the beginning
   - Try to follow as much as possible open standards
   - People who started the project were great FLOSS advocates
   - \alert{But...}
** OTB decision making process before the PSC
*** the benevolent dictatorship dynasty
*** Who makes feature requests
    - Users from Orfeo CNES program (main funding source for 8 years)
    - CNES team
    - Users from mailing list
*** Who decides
    - CNES team with support of CNES contractors
*** Who actually writes code
    - CNES team or CNES contractors
    - Other contributors
** Why changing in 2015?
*** Transparency
    - Users are often informed afterward of major changes
    - No insight on motivations behind some decisions
    - Difficult to participate in decision making
    - OTB is a big project now, someone may want to get involved more deeply
*** For more, easier contributions
    - what was the process for contributing code to OTB?
    - how can I know if my contribution will be accepted?
    - if I contribute a lot, do I get a grip on decision making?
*** For sustainability
    - What if, one day, CNES stops funding OTB at the current level?
    - We need new actors to be able to get involved in OTB!
** OTB project Steering Committee
- In 2015 CNES decided to set-up an open-governance for OTB
- We now have a working PSC, with:
  - Members
  - Rules
  - Decisions
- PSC scope:
  - roadmaps
  - communication
  - contribution management
  - release planning
  - \alert{Handling legal issues}
- "PSC should help to guarantee that OTB remains open and company neutral."
- Inspired by existing governance (status,rules) and especially by OSGeo
  projects like GRASS GIS, GDAL, QGIS
** OTB decision making process
   1. *Request for Comments*
   2. Comments and discussions
   3. Developments
   4. *Requests for changes*
   5. Review
   6. PSC Vote
   7. *Request for Merge*
   8. Approval by Release Manager
   9. Merge
* What has changed since 2015
** ... for users
- Every significant ongoing or passed change is now public and visible
- Users have the opportunity to comment on pending Request for Changes during review
- There are more details available on why and how things were done (and discussions)
- Users can file new Request for Comments to request new features
- Releases are more frequent

** ... for contributors

- There is a clear and detailed process on how to get your code in OTB
- Contributors are guaranteed to be treated with equity
- They know the deadline to get their feature into next release

** Are we making a better OTB?
On the overall, I think that we do.
- We have more code reviews, from external reviewer (even if PSC is still small)
- Changes are more consistent because they belong to the same RFC
- Everyone gets to give his opinion
- New features are more visible
*** It creates the structure to deal with more controversial changes 
    - License
    - Version control system
    - Refactoring

* Moving from CeCILL to Apache
**  
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** Moving from CeCILL to Apache
   - The license change consideration starts in the same time as the governance
     set up
   - Also closely related with the OSGeo incubation process as it was one of the
     goal of the PSC to complete the application to OSGeo
** Why moving from CeCILL to Apache?
   - CeCILL is not a very common license (even if it is compatible with GPL and OSI approved since 2013)
   - Strategy: OTB position in the GIS and image processing pipelines
   - Strong relationship with ITK (image processing library) distributed under
     the Apache v2 license 
   - In the current context where OTB can be useful, copyleft may also restrict
     the use of the library for some potential users and contributors
   - This licensing change also means in our case better management of contributors (CLA and ICLA)
** Personal thoughts
   - Copyleft is a very good protection for open-source software in general
   - But OTB was considered by many institutions and companies as part of their project
   - Cause individual and expensive schemes to include OTB in projects and still respect the license requirements
   - From a practical standpoint, think that a more permissive license could only increase interest in OTB
   - From both a strategic and an operational point of view I hope that it is a good
     decision for OTB
** Conclusion about license change 1/2
   - Follow guidelines provided by OSI, GNU, Apache foundation\ldots
   - Doing a code review is a long and hard work (especially for a library like
     OTB - more than 500k lines of code)
   - But you always learn things doing a code review
   - Think twice before integrating code/libs without a license
   - It helps a lot for OTB to maintain properly contributions since the
     beginning
   - Helps from a lawyer at CNES (P. Maurette) and S. Dinot from the dev team
   - Changing license should follow at the end the same acceptance mechanism as new features (pull request, RFC...)
** Conclusion about license change 2/2
   - For most users changing the license will not change a lot the way that they use OTB
   - Communication is important

* OSGeo incubation
** OSGeo incubation
Once upon a time OTB started the OSGeo incubation
** How does it start?
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** FOSS4G 2010: Starting the journey
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** Incubation revamp
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** Next step? Find a mentor in 2013(Thank you Landon!) 
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** How OSGeo helps during the all process?
   - Open governance
     - How to set up the PSC
     - Decision making strategy
     - Documentation license
   - Take time to set up the governance\ldots
   - We wait to complete the license migration before restarting the incubation
     process in 2017
   - It took time\ldots
   - \ldots But it was perhaps the time needed by the project 
** Thought about the OSGeo incubation process
* Conclusion
** Conclusion
   - OSGeo incubation starts in 2011 (first application)
   - Being an official OSGeo software will perhaps not change lots of thing...
   - ...but I think that the incubation helps OTB to have a more open process
     and overall
   - Moving to GPL to Apache was also quite a huge work
   - The OTB governance is still young but works well
   - Number of RFC in 2 years: 103
** Thanks
   - Thanks to the incubation committee and the OSGeo board for the acceptance of OTB
   - This is great news for us!
   - Special thanks to:
     - All people of OTb community who participates in some way to the incubation
     - Our mentor Landon Blake
     - Jody Garnett and Brian M Hamlin who helped in the final stretch
     - Other OSGeo projects related to OTB: GDAL, OSSIM, QGIS, OSGeo-Live, ...
     - Angelos Tzotsos, Even Rouault, Alexander Bruy, Victor Olaya, Paolo
       Cavallini, Vincent Picavet, Yves Jacolin, Gérald Fenoy, Markus Neteler\ldots
     - And many others!
** Questions ?