[OSGeo-Announce] Call for Volunteers for Geodata Committee

[Jorge Sanz]

Dear OSGeo community,

We are all aware of how important Open data is for our community, and
for the mission of OSGeo.  Most of you are aware that the OSGeo
foundation has a committee dedicated to this, called the Geodata
Committee; however the reality is that this committee is quiescent/not
active/at rest, as its mailing list has not really been used since a
message was posted in May of 2015 (which no one answered actually).

The Geodata Committee is still listed as a working committee on the
OSGeo website, and points to a page[1] that contains the mailing list
and the wiki.  The mailing list has 387 members, and the archives go
all the way back to March of 2006.  Back in those days, the committee
would meet regularly on IRC and it was very vibrant (thanks to Jo,
Arnulf, and the many early visionaries pushing forward and sharing).

More recently, there was a "reboot" push for this committee around
2012, and also another one in October of last year.  Of course there
were likely many other attempts, but those are the ones that come to
mind.

We believe that open data is even more critical to the mission of
OSGeo today, and a strong relationship with the various data
communities is important for the health of the ecosystem.  We also
look to the massive success of GeoForAll for sharing the passion for
education and Open as a great example of what we can all do together.

Would you be willing to help revive the OSGeo Geodata Committee?  It
would be great to hear more thoughts and ideas on this.  It does not
seem right to dissolve the committee; in fact we want the opposite to
occur.

Thank you,

Maria, Codrina, Vasile, Jeff on behalf of the OSGeo Board of Directors

[1] http://www.osgeo.org/content/projects/geodata.html