Are things happening behind the scenes that don't get updated on the site?

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Hello to anyone who might be able to answer this. I am not able to attend and listen to the regular Tech Dev Call so I rely on the web site to get any information about Pixhawk/Dronecode developoment. But, when I look around, the content is starting to get sparse. I read the updates with new companies from Interdrone, etc., but the last entry on the Roadmap page references March of 2018. The TSC and working groups seem like a great concept, but the working groups wiki hasn’t been updated since January 2018, and none of the actual working group content has been updated since December of 2017. Are those groups still working under the Dronecode umbrella? And if so, for those of us who can’t attend the weekly meetings, would it be possible to see those updates? Also, the Dronecode weekly strategy doesn’t look weekly anymore. I’m just really hopeful that the Dronecode project isn’t going the way of so many other opensource projects, where it forks in ten thousand different directions because the current operators don’t have the time or resources to keep it updated, or at least keep the users updated on what’s happening with it.

I totally understand this is an opensource project, and most people aren’t being paid and are genuinely nice enough to volunteer their time to help with this project, which is awesome! I appreciate the work that has been done and is being done, but is it possible for us to SEE what is going on as well, aside from browsing through the pull requests on Github? Is someone actively developing the next Pixhawk mini hardware, are deals made with companies to partner and manufacture the hardware (ie Holybro)? Are there development milestones set and goals set for the project somewhere? I’m just an undergrad working on my degree in unmanned systems applications and am trying to find one system I can focus on and really learn inside and out. The Dronecode project really seems like it has everything, but my concern is I can’t see the long term plan or current development feedback from the workgroups to know what’s happening with it. I just want to make sure it isn’t withering away as people either move on to other projects, or lose interest.

If anyone has made it this far, thanks for reading, and thanks for any info you can provide. As I said, I appreciate all of the Dronecode volunteers and their efforts, it seems like it’s on the right track, I’m just hoping someone can confirm it for me. Thanks!

James

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Hey James! We’ve actually discussed this on the dev call on Wednesday before you posted as I’m myself quite unhappy how much is being discussed on the calls and the lack of reflection of that on the website.

To put things simple: The real decisions in this ecosystem are made by the PX4 leadership on the dev call together with the community. The TSC itself is right now dormant as the TSC head has moved on to another position inside the member company and a re-election is under way. And quite frankly: The TSC has never been the entity making roadmap decisions and we’re looking into re-structuring this to make it more clear.

I will put up a new roadmap in this forum because the real development is happening here.

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@LorenzMeier Thank you for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it! When I saw the forum for weekly dev calls, I have to say I was surprised. Weekly updates are extremely ambitious, especially for an open source project. I would think quarterly updates would be sufficient to satisfy the community, more like a corporate structure, but I might be wrong. I’m glad to hear there is activity going on, even though it may not be reflected on the site itself. I recently watched you in the world.minds video from this year and thought you made some really good points and had a strong outlook on where the industry is going. Especially the points about the auto industry and avoiding traffic. I live in U.S., more specifically Southern California, and have to deal with a minimum 90 minute one way commute at the moment, which usually gives me over 3 hours a day to think of ways to shorten that commute. Ha ha! I really like the direction Dronecode is heading, and it’s nice to know that things are still being worked on even though the website might show the whole picture at the moment. I browse the site daily and have sent in a couple pull requests for changes which @Hamishwillee implements quickly. Thanks again Lorenz for the reply, it is much appreciated.

James

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This is notice that this topic came up in the last Dronecode weekly call (Tuesdays), the team thinks we can keep the weekly calls for Dronecode project coordination and the PX4 dev call, we are taking steps to ensure the discussions are reflected on our forums, please keep sharing your feedback.

Thank you @ocularmagic