Dear Maxi et al
Great to continue another part of our strategy-in-the-making! My
reasons why I feel we need a regional EU chapter and its consequences
below.
As with many international organisations I am a supporter of the
strategy-adagio ; plan global, act local.
This enables local flavours to an overall
vision-mission-strategy-story. (Even Coca Cola encourages local
initiatives under a global brand and growth strategy.) Which
addresses
the fact that, for example the GeoServer project, has many
region/country specific implementations and add-ons. Just think of
the
specific European INSPIRE directive, with special plugins for
metadata etc.
Furthermore, outreach and lobby (see the Concept Marketing discussion
in the Wiki) have to deal with a host of different cultures and
political entities in Europe. Unlike a relatively homogenous US
marketplace. Most notably we have a influential/powerful centralised
EU government in Brussels as a pan-national stakeholder.
Now, local chapters could be invited to localise our overall
strategic
roadmap (I happily take my analogy from software). But they are
either
not set up or not equipped to deal with this matter (compare our
similar efforts on .org level). And they are certainly not able to
influence European/Brussels policy from their relative distance.
If a European OSGeo.eu can be the collaborative entity to work
towards
further open spatial dissemination, on this side of the
Atlantic, then I am all for this. It could also facilitate FOSS4GEU
in stead of having a local chapter carry the weight. It is a
European itch, so lets scratch it ourselves.
And if Africa and Asia and Middle-East have
other dissemination needs than power to them.
From an OSGeo-organisational point of view, we will certainly have to
look into the overall governance. In my opinion we are in a phase in
which we step up our game, professionalise, re-group and re-organise
where required. However, splitting would be disastrous.
A simple solution is that board representation is based on certain
roles and representatives:
Chair, Secretary and Treasurer: General roles, therefor voted by all
chapter members
For marketing, sponsoring (single/grouped) etc; also individuals
voted by all
Representative EU: voted by EU chapter members
Representative Asia: voted by Asian chapter
These last two roles could be combined with other specific roles if
needed.
Regional Chapters to be voted on by the local chapters in the area.
Or such like.
Yes, a little more of a Christmas tree, but that can be solved. It
reflects a need for required change.
The overall issue is that we grow in depth, width and length and
therefore we need to revisit/rethink how the organisation is managed
for future growth and relevance.
And managing large internationally distributed organisations is an
art, a craft and a profession. Especially if the organisation
consists
of critical, vocal and engaged volunteers.
That can be daunting for those involved, but working in open source
throws us much larger daunting challenges on a daily basis.
My two (Euro)cents
Cheers Marc
Op dinsdag 3 mei 2016 heeft Massimiliano Cannata
<massimiliano.cann...@supsi.ch [6]> het volgende geschreven:
Dear Dirk and all,
I came across the e...@list.osgeo.org which I didnt know the
existence before of your last message. The archive [1] is showing
very low traffic (2 thread, one of 2015 and one of 2016) with few
contributors to the discussions (3 people).
In my opinion times are very immature for creating an OSGeo-EU; it
seems to me that the discussion just started.
Apart from visions and perspective which could be different, im
concerned about the creation of an European OSGeo chapter and maybe
in the next future of an Asian one.
To my point of View, this may be the start of a disruption process
which could lead to to the creation of multiple regional
foundations.
I have to say that I was already reluctant on the formation of North
American chapter for the same reason.
This structure is one option, but then I see the "international
OSGeo" (now OSGeo only) to be totally redesigned in the case.
Probably each continent should then elect one/two representatives
for the "international OSGeo" and each "continental chapter" will
have their members and their rules that scale down to "national
local chapters" that have their own rules and members and elects
representatives for the continental chapter.
Also each "continental" will have its annual conference and the
International could happen once every two years.
Said that, I have no recipe and while understanding the motivation
behind this disruption process I have some fear of splitting
communities. This may lead in the future to different incubation
processes, visions strategies etc...
If this is the selected "option" I which that the process of
de-localization could be run in a more democratic way - doocracy is
good but when important matters involves several people democracy is
far way better as it explicitly involve everyone, not only those who
" tends to favor the more vocal people, leaving the "general
opinion" largely unknown."
So my question (with no prejudices) is, are we going toward and do
we seek for a different OSGeo scenario?
Maxi
[1]
http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/European-Union-Chapter-f5250537.html
[5]
Sorry if I garbled my understanding of the initial email, I did ask
for clarification :P
--
Jody Garnett
On 2 May 2016 at 12:23, Massimiliano Cannata
<massimiliano.cann...@supsi.ch> wrote:
Dear Board Members,
while I understand the call for presentation for the OSGeo vision,
regarding FOSS4G Europe, i see different visions within the
community.
One things is the EU local chapter, another is the FOSS4G local
event which has a different vision in my understanding and my
opinion.
What is your opinion?
Maxi
2016-05-02 17:56 GMT+02:00 Jody Garnett <jody.garn...@gmail.com>:
Thanks Till:
I see that the presentation covering our mission/vision/goals
has been accepted [1] - perhaps that can take some pressure of
keynotes? I would appreciate company if Maxi (who has been doing
so much planning work) was willing.
To clarify point two - are you considering a european foss4g
event? Or a vision for how OSGeo can be effective in Europe.
--
Jody Garnett
On 2 May 2016 at 11:19, <till.ad...@fossgis.de> wrote:
Dear OSGeo board,
I come to you in sight of OSGeo presence @FOSS4G 2016 in
Bonn. After sending out the accteptance-emails for the
proposals for the regular track we now also care heavily about
all the other programme related issues.
One thing we want to finalize ASAP are the plenary
talks/sessions we will have.
We would be very pleased, if we could have two presentations
from OSGeo within the limits of our plenary sessions:
1. Traditionally the OSGeo president should run the Sol Katz
Award session as well as the student awardings - both together
in the closing session. So we would be happy if Venka would
agree in adopting that. This would be on friday afternoon,
the detailed time schedule will come soon.
2. In order to have both, a presentation of OSGeos new
"Vision and Mission" but also to present the "Vision of an
European FOSS4G" I would like to ask kindly whether
Vice-President Dirk Frigne wants to talk about this in a
keynote on wednesday noon. I think especially on an european
FOSS4G with a lot of european organisations being advocated,
showing the vision of a worldwide, but also of an european
FOSS4G makes a lot of sense. Dirk as a Vice-President is the
perfect person to combine both talks into one.
Please also consider organizing the OSGeo booth, for
questions just contact me.
Till
--
MASSIMILIANO CANNATA
Professore SUPSI in ingegneria Geomatica
Responsabile settore Geomatica
Istituto scienze della Terra
Dipartimento ambiente costruzione e design
Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana
Campus Trevano, CH - 6952 Canobbio
Tel. +41 (0)58 666 62 14 [2]
Fax +41 (0)58 666 62 09 [3]
massimiliano.cann...@supsi.ch
www.supsi.ch/ist [4]
--
Kind regards,
Marc Vloemans
Mobile +31(0)651 844262
LinkedIn: http://nl.linkedin.com/in/marcvloemans [7]
Twitter: http://twitter.com/marcvloemans [8]
http://www.slideshare.net/marcvloemans [9]
Links:
------
[1] http://2016.foss4g.org/talks.html#306
[2] http://www.fossgis.de/tel:%2B41%20%280%2958%20666%2062%2014
[3] http://www.fossgis.de/tel:%2B41%20%280%2958%20666%2062%2009
[4] http://www.supsi.ch/ist
[5]
http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/European-Union-Chapter-f5250537.html
[6] mailto:massimiliano.cann...@supsi.ch
[7] http://nl.linkedin.com/in/marcvloemans
[8] http://twitter.com/marcvloemans
[9] http://www.slideshare.net/marcvloemans
