I second Gary. If I want to say something to the founding meeting it is that please remember the education world. I believe how lecturers and professors present software to students and what software is used has a very important effect on how they view them in the future.
Also if research results are implemented as FOSS (e.g., add-ons to QGIS for example), that is important from the point of view of advancing the whole culture of FOSS. Regards, Ari Jolma Gary Watry wrote: > For what my opinion is worth > > This is the way we should be headed. > > I am glad to see people from the open source desktop community there as > well. > > We are starting to teach open source software as an viable option to > commercial software. This semester as a no-cost, uncredited course but hope > to eventually as a accredited course. Right now we have it in a > post-graduate course at FSU and will be used in an Undergraduate course at > FAMU. Two of the softwares we are discussing are Quantum GIS and UDIG. > > So we have a vested interest in the success of the Open Source Foundation. > > ______________________________________________________________ > Gary L. Watry > > GIS Coordinator > Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies > FSU / COAPS > Johnson Building, RM 215 > 2035 East Paul Dirac Drive > Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2840 > > E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -----Original Message----- > From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Paul Ramsey > Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 12:32 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] "Geospatial Foundation" Meeting > > Dear Community Members, > > In order to help move along the process of starting an "open source > geospatial foundation" there will be a face-to-face meeting in > Chicago, Westin O'Hare, on February 4, 2006, hosted by Autodesk. In > conceiving of this meeting, we have tried (and will continue to try) > to follow these principles: > > - Inclusion. Members from a number of different open source projects > have been invited (see the list so far below) and Autodesk has > offered to pay the travel costs of some of these invitees in order to > ensure they can attend if they cannot afford it otherwise. Anyone > else is also welcome to attend physically or virtually (see below). > > - Transparency. The agenda for the meeting will be public, and will > be revised based on comments and input prior to the meeting. The > minutes of the meeting will also be public. Planning materials > (backgrounders, attendee lists, agenda) for the meeting on will be on > a public site. The whole meeting will be transcribed into IRC in real > time, and IRC users will be able to participate via an interlocutor > at the meeting. > > The following are some general goals for the meeting (subject to > revision/addition/subtraction), which should provide enough certainty > that present investments into the starting of the foundation are not > wasted on concepts that people are not interested in for the long > term future. > > - Agreement in principle on a mission statement or short charter. > > - Agreement in principle on a governance model for the foundation. > Deciding whether the foundation should "look like" Eclipse, or > Apache, or The Open Group, or some other model entirely. > > - Agreement in principle on a founding Board of Directors. A founding > BoD can start to make concrete decisions on things like a name, logo > and branding, domains, and so on. > > - Agreement in principle on an acceptable short list of foundation > names, to be subjected to further legal research. > > In general, the goal is to establish enough solid agreement on basic > issues that a founding BoD can proceed confidently in managing the > details in getting the foundation up and running. > > The proposed agenda follows: > > a. Opening statements and introductions > b. Q/A - ~20 min - from IRC, email > c. Foundation Goals - what should they be? What should the name be? > d. Q/A - ~20 min - from IRC, email > e. Foundation Operations - the givens (governance, legal > protection, IPR, licenses, funding, community management) > f. Q/A - ~20 min - from IRC, email > g. Foundation charter, tentative board membership, and action > plan established > h. Q/A - 20 min - from IRC, email > i. Breakout groups: Governance, Legal Issues, Community > Management, Funding > j. Breakout groups regroup and present their findings > k. Results will be gathered and enumerated for the creation of a > draft document rolling up the decisions and next steps. > > The minutes of this meeting will be published on the web site within > a few days after the meeting adjourns. We will then work hard to > publish the final results of the meeting within two weeks of the > meeting. > > An attorney who has worked with the creators of Mozilla and other > foundations to establish non profits for housing an open source > foundation will be present. Establishing an open source foundation is > now almost formulaic in Silicon Valley, and we would like to take > advantage of those formulas. > > The participants in the meeting thus far are: > > Brian Behlendorf (O'Reilly & CollabNet) > Chris Holmes (GeoServer/Open Planning Project) > Claude Philipona (FOSS4GIS Conference/Camptocamp) > Dave McIlhagga (Mapserver/DM) > Frank Warmerdam (OGR/GDAL) > Gary Lang (Tux/Autodesk) > Gary Sherman (QGIS) > Gordon Luckett (User/Autodesk) > Howard Butler (MapServer/UIowa) > Mark Lucas (OSSIM) > Paul Ramsey (PostGIS/uDig/Refractions) > Pericles Nacionales (Mapserver/UMN) > Robert Bray (Tux/Autodesk) > Rich Steele (Tux/Autodesk) > Paul Spencer (Ka-Map/DM) > Steve Lime (Mapserver) > Tom Burk (Mapserver/UMN) > Tyler Mitchell (O'Reilly Author, long-time MapServer Foundation > advocate) > > We therefore have room for more on-site attendees. If you are > interested in attending to represent one of these communities as a > user or you want to propose adding a project to this list, please > send an email to: > > chicago <at> mapserverfoundation.org > > When we reach 25 on-site attendees, we will be at our budget limit > for this meeting and have reached a size that we feel comfortable > managing. Everyone else can participate through the virtual > mechanisms described above. > > Everyone wants to ensure the foundation has a long and successful > future, and we know that this requires getting lots of input up > front, so the organization starts out heading in the right direction. > We hope that many of you can join us in Chicago, and that the rest > will join us virtually as well to take part in this process. > > We will soon start posting Chicago location information (a hotel near > the airport is the goal) and information for discussion publicly. We > will use www.mapserverfoundation.org as the hosting place for virtual > connection information, discussion documents, agenda modifications, > and other documents associated with the foundation until such time as > the name of the foundation is chosen and a site dedicated to it has > been established. > > Paul Ramsey > Gary Lang -- Prof. Ari Jolma Kartografia ja Geoinformatiikka / Cartography and Geoinformatics Teknillinen Korkeakoulu / Helsinki University of Technology tel: +358 9 451 3886 address: POBox 1200, 02015 TKK, Finland Email: ari.jolma at tkk.fi URL: http://www.tkk.fi/~jolma
