Thank you for the two narratives Rob, I find it a much more constructive presentation then the FAQ provided previously.
Narrative B matches my own experience, although I have focused on project/developer level interaction (and largely ignored any capacity as a PCO). I think I can make the slightly stronger statement that as a committer representative on the LocationTech steering committee I have always sought a constructive engagement. -- Jody Garnett On 16 November 2015 at 16:59, Rob Emanuele <rdemanu...@gmail.com> wrote: > I think there's two narratives that are at conflict in this entire thread. > I'm going to try to try to spell them out as I see them: > > A. LocationTech is a newer-than-OSGeo organization that is trying to make > a name for itself, capture market share, promote it's brand, in general act > in a way that makes itself grow. The intention behind LocationTech's > actions in offering services as a professional conference organizer is > mostly for it's own gain; LocationTech wants to smoothly slide into > becoming a part of OSGeo's annual conference for the profit and promotion > of itself, to the potential loss of OSGeo. For that reason, it is best for > the OSGeo community to protect itself from LocationTech, keep measured > distance between the organizations, not allow it to become part of the > FOSS4G international event, or at least to be suspicious of it's stated > good intentions in offering itself to be PCO. The real story is that > LocationTech's intentions are primarily about the profits and higher > visibility it will gain from being part of FOSS4G, and the help it is > offering plays a secondary role. > > B. LocationTech is an organization that was created out of intentions to > help parts of the community that were perhaps not best served by OSGeo at > the time. It has it's own governance and ways of doing things, which > include being backed by small and large companies looking to contribute > financial support to the open source community, which allows for things > like paid staff. The model is different than OSGeo, the structure is > different than OSGeo, and the aims are similar but have differences. One > differences is that it's parent organization is the Eclipse Foundation, who > have professional conference organizers on staff and a lot of experience > running successful conferences. Seeing this is a valuable thing that the > open source geospatial community can take advantage of, LocationTech offers > it's services as a professional conference organizer to the FOSS4G NA > regional conferences, and now has offered it's services to the > international conference in 2017. While certainly not eschewing the > increase in visibility in the community that being part of the conferences > would afford LocationTech, that plays a secondary role to the earnest > desire to help the open source geospatial community. > > Have I captured these narratives correctly or incorrectly? They are based > on impressions and implicit opinions that I've tried to understand from > these conversations. I think perhaps explicitly stating them would be > useful, so if I have failed to do so correctly please correct me. > > I obviously have a preference for believing that narrative B best fits the > reality of the situation. Self promotion surely must play some role in > LocationTech's actions, but is it naive to think that the intentions of > LocationTech are for the community first and itself second? Perhaps. I > don't think so though. The alternative is certainly not how I operate when > I participate in LocationTech. > > I prefer the narrative of openness and trust vs the narrative of mistrust > and suspicion that sounds like bad politics. I hope that this community > that I choose to participate in is not such a political mess that breeds > that sort of selfish market share power plays, and instead it is a > community of people and organizations that take actions based on how they > can contribute to an overall good. > > On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 6:23 PM, Mateusz Loskot <mate...@loskot.net> > wrote: > >> On 16 November 2015 at 23:11, Jody Garnett <jody.garn...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> > If I was to sum up the difference in outlook between the two >> organizations >> > today it would more be along the lines of LocationTech being "developer >> > focused" and OSGeo being "user focused'. I think that is more a >> reflection >> > of where the projects involved are in their incubation process that any >> > strategic difference. >> >> Jody, >> >> I have to admit, to me as OSGeo member as developer (+SAC supporter), >> this whole thread has not clarified almost nothing. >> >> As much as I appreciate (and carefully read through) all your inputs, >> that summary leaves me with even more questions. >> >> And, BTW, I agree with you about the FAQ, it also reads naive and silly >> (e.g. comparing Apache vs Mozilla, two different scopes, to >> LocationTech vs OSGeo, >> two with clear overlap). >> >> Putting all the emotional cream whipped so far aside and objectively, >> clearly, that it is all about potential, capacity and market share. >> >> OSGeo has proved its potential, it is capable to paddle its own canoe >> for a decade or more, >> via large self-organized community and successful projects. >> >> LocationTech is a fairly new player with huge & rich organization behind, >> that has to prove it's capable to secure market share, and its position. >> Otherwise, the parent organization will simply shut it down as any >> failed project. >> >> Best regards, >> -- >> Mateusz Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net >> > >
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