[OSGeo-Board] Getting people involved.

[Frank Warmerdam]

Chris Holmes wrote:
> Ok, so I made a page on how to get started: 
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Getting_Started  Feel free to hack on 
> it, I'm hoping it can help people who want to help out and don't know 
> where.  

Chris,

My main issue with this page is that anyone at large cannot
start a committee.  A committee needs to be launched by the board
and we don't really want a huge proliferation of formal committees.

Perhaps we need a concept of "special interest group".  Special
interest groups could be relatively light-weight organizationally.
They basically get a mailing list, and can setup documents in the wiki.
But SIGs wouldn't need to formally report to the board.  Of course, they
also can't speak for the foundation, though they could make a recommendation
to the board.

Efforts like the "core curriculum" or possibly even the "public geodata"
could be SIGs instead of committees or projects.  Then we could encourage
people to start a SIG if they wish.

 > The page right now isn't super helpful, it basically says join
> everything and figure it out.  It'd be nice if there were a clearer path 
> to how to get involved, where to start on the wiki, how an idea can grow 
> into a committee, ect.  If anyone has ideas on how to do that better 
> then just modify that page.  We also probably should improve: 
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Volunteers_Needed a good bit as well.

Agreed.

> I also started a list for members to put up some information about 
> themselves: http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/All_Members

I want to encourage all members (associate as well as voting) to sign
up here, but I am concerned it will become very cumbersome to edit or
fix up the list as it grows to the hundred-member mark.  I don't really
have a solution for that though.

> If people think these pages are decent, I'd like to send an email to all 
> the current voting membership, encouraging them to help out, pointing at 
> the getting started page, and remembering them that we're all building 
> this together, and it's an open process.  And getting them to add 
> themselves to the member list.

Daniel has the members at mail.osgeo.org list setup and we should send out a
welcome message.  I would appreciate suggestions on what to put into that
welcome.  Obviously, pointing people to the Getting_Started document would
be the main item.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org