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Darrel,<br>
Excellently stated ideas! We, OSGeo need to acknowledge our
weaknesses if we are going to address them! <br>
<br>
Your ideas will provide the incoming board with a great framework to
start discussions. I'm hopeful that you will be available to expand
upon these themes that you have raised, and help OSGeo and the OSGeo
board identify ideas for implementation?<br>
<br>
Expanding upon your question about "what is the importance of
OSGeo?" Ie, what does OSGeo provide which isn't available elsewhere?
<br>
<br>
* I'd say "OSGeo" provides a brand. The OSGeo brand stands for
quality, standards compliance, Open Source Geospatial Software, and
associated Open Source communities. This is defined in the OSGeo
Incubation process [1] and reflected in the charters of our
projects. <br>
<br>
* OSGeo also stands for a marketing pipeline, which is embodied in
the FOSS4G conferences and OSGeo-Live. Marketing is also gained
through DebianGIS, UbuntuGIS packaging.<br>
<br>
* I also see the education initiatives as becoming an upcoming focus
area for OSGeo. I see huge (mostly untapped) potential to integrate
training initiatives with project development communities. A full
time employee dedicated to this integration could make an impressive
difference. (I'm thinking about using a similar process to that used
by the OSGeo-Live project [2] )<br>
<br>
With regards to your idea of shipping the board away to a physical
location to discuss solutions. I think that would be a good idea if
the breadth of the OSGeo community were in the room. However we have
some incredibly intelligent and insightful people in our OSGeo
community, and not all of them are on our current board. Some have
served on prior boards. Some, such as yourself, have contributed
hugely to OSGeo in other ways, but never served on the board. I'd be
hopeful that we could thrash out some of these ideas in a public
forum first, which hopefully will help the board draw upon the
insights of our greater community. (I do note Darrel's very valid
point about the difference between talk and action. Of late, there
have been less ideas converted to action.)<br>
<br>
Warm regards, Cameron<br>
<br>
[1]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.osgeo.org/incubator/process/project_graduation_checklist.html">http://www.osgeo.org/incubator/process/project_graduation_checklist.html</a><br>
[2]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://cameronshorter.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/memoirs-of-cat-herder-coordinating.html">http://cameronshorter.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/memoirs-of-cat-herder-coordinating.html</a><br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 26/09/2015 4:40 pm, Massimiliano
Cannata wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAMKYQEt53pvK1xx9ugyOASN8BU2wix-Fox5wgRxMcU2yp4p5WA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<p dir="ltr">Darrel YOU ARE WRONG.... BUT<br>
osgeo is a great and successful community and this alone desrve
the OSGeo existence. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Before we only had project oriented communities
(mapserver, grass, etc). But now we have a place in the network
to get togheter with all projects and users. Aren't we using
stack of softwere instead of a single solution very often?<br>
FOSS4G is where we exchange ideas, create innovation and get fun
also.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Some excellent work is done also in some working
groups... incubation and geo4all for example...</p>
<p dir="ltr">So you are WRONG!</p>
<p dir="ltr">BUT.... i have to agree that things could even be
better :-)<br>
In my opinion (and this is part of my manifesto even if i still
have one more year to serve the board):<br>
- we need to redefine objectives of the association cause things
have changed (reault framework...)<br>
- we need to better promote our valuable software and community
(marketing. ..)<br>
- we need to review and redefine rules so that they are
transparent and clear (communication... )<br>
- we need to lower the rates of our international meetings to be
more inclusive<br>
- we need a plan for investment (investment plan..)</p>
<p dir="ltr">So i call for a face2face meeting of 2 days of all
the board members in the next months to discuss all these
points.<br>
Apparently the last board was not able to set a date, but i'm
keen that the new board will be able to do it. It will aslo he
agood starting point to define our working plan...</p>
<p dir="ltr">The i call all of you charter member to help and do
things... continuing in shaking the community but also propose
and act to make the world a better place. Then if you think the
world would be better without osgeo... well... be part of the
community is not mandatory :-)</p>
<p dir="ltr">Best <br>
Proudly member of osgeo<br>
Maxi</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">Il 25/Set/2015 21:57, "Darrell Fuhriman"
<<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:darrell@garnix.org">darrell@garnix.org</a>>
ha scritto:<br type="attribution">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2015-September/013172.html"
style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:rgb(17,85,204);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">recent discussion on the board list</span></a><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> that came out of the question of the 2014 videos has got me thinking about a few things again, and I want to try to get them out there.</span></div>
<div><span><br>
</span></div>
<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:15px;line-height:17px;white-space:pre-wrap">Grab a mug of your favorite liquid and hunker down, because I put some time and effort into this, and your own well considered reply is appreciated.</span></span>
<div><span><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:17px;white-space:pre-wrap">
</span></font>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Keep in mind that all of these comments are coming from my personal perspective, which, like everyone’s, is an incomplete picture of the whole. Much of what I’m going to say has been rolling around my head for a while, so I’m just going to put it out there.</span></p>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I will start with a provocative thesis:</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-weight:700;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">OSGeo lacks visionary unified leadership and without it will become irrelevant.</span></div>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Of course, making such a claim requires support. So let me break down the statement. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“Visionary leadership” is really two things, “vision” and “leadership.” I will address each in turn.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:24px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">OSGeo lacks vision</span></h2>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I looked at the list of </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/about.html"
style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:rgb(0,0,238);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“Goals” for OSGeo</span></a><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">. I wonder: when was the last time these goals were evaluated for both success and relevancy?</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Here is my own opinion of success of some of these goals. (In the interest of brevity, I haven’t tried to tackle everything. That’s left as an exercise to the reader.)</span></div>
<br>
<h3 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12pt"><span style="font-size:18.666666666666664px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Example 1</span></h3>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">To provide resources for foundation projects - eg. infrastructure, funding, legal.</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Allow me to break each of those examples down.</span></div>
<h4 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:12.75pt;margin-bottom:12.75pt"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Infrastructure</span></h4>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">It’s true that OSGeo provides some infrastructure, such as Trac instance, Mailman, SVN repos. If the budget is to be believed, we pay some $3,500/yr to OSUOSL for said infrastructure. I wonder if such a service is necessary, however. Issue tracking and source control are much better provided by Github, which is free for organization such as ours.</span></div>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I say this because a) that’s money that could be better spent elsewhere and b) supporting these services burns precious volunteer time (more on that below).</span></div>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12.75pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">There are clear cost savings available, which are not taken advantage of. For example, OSGeo could be hosting FOSS4G infrastructure: conference websites and registration, a central location for conference videos (regardless of platform/provider). This neglect is especially galling given that FOSS4G is OSGeo’s sole source of income.</span></p>
<h4 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12.75pt"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Funding</span></h4>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12.75pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">OSGeo does not fund projects. It has provided some funds to pay for Code Sprints — $15k in 2014 according to </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Budget_2014"
style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:rgb(0,0,238);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the budget</span></a><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">.</span></p>
<h4 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12.75pt"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Legal</span></h4>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12.75pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I see nothing that has been done on this front recently. Please feel free to correct me.</span></p>
<h4 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12.75pt"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Conclusion</span></h4>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">OSGeo, where it actually does what it claims, has not adapted in ways that could save money.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> My grade: </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">D</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:24px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Example 2</span></h2>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">To promote freely available geodata - free software is useless without data.</span></div>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The geodata working group is dead. As near as I can tell by perusing the mailing list archives, and the wiki, there has been no meaningful activity in the past two years (maybe more).</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">My grade: </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">F</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:24px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Example 3</span></h2>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">To promote the use of open source software in the geospatial industry (not just foundation software) - eg. PR, training, outreach.</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_of_Directors#Packaging_and_Marketing"
style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:rgb(0,0,238);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Board of Directors</span></a><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> page says:</span></div>
<h4 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:12.75pt;margin-bottom:12.75pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Packaging and Marketing</span></h4>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12.75pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">OSGeo’s marketing effort has primarily been focused around the packaging and documentation efforts of OSGeo-Live, and to a lesser extend[sic], osgeo4w. […] It has been entirely driven by volunteer labour, with 140 OSGeo-Live volunteers, and printing costs have been covered by local events or sponsors. In the last couple of years, OSGeo has covered local chapter expenses required to purchase non-consumable items for conference booths (such as a retractable banner). In moving forward, OSGeo hope to extend marketing reach by providing co-contributions toward printing costs of consumable items at conferences, such as toward OSGeo-Live DVDs.</span></p>
<h4 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12.75pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Local Chapters</span></h4>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Much of OSGeo’s marketing initiates are applied at the local level. In many cases, this is best supported through as little as an email list and wiki page. OSGeo also supports local chapters by offering to pay for an Exhibition starter pack for local chapters. Local chapters are also usually the coordinators of conferences and related events, as mentioned above.</span></div>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Exhibition starter packs almost never happen; OSGeo-Live </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">explicitly</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> gets no support; and OSGeo struggles to staff a booth </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">at its own conference</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> to say nothing of any other conferences.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Note: Local chapters certainly do do marketing and outreach, but these efforts are essentially unsupported by the OSGeo Foundation. In fact, this goal and the Board of Directors webpage seem to be explicitly contradictory. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">My grade: </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">F</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">.</span></p>
<h3 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:12pt"><span style="font-size:18.666666666666664px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Commentary</span></h3>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I could go on with my own personal evaluations, but I’m not sure that’s necessary. The only place I see that OSGeo has unquestionably succeeded in the past few years is the final goal, “</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">To award the Sol Katz award for service to the OSGeo community</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">”.</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">So, what’s my point here? It’s simple: there is no longer a coherent vision for what OSGeo should be. I’ll return to that below, but let me continue with my other point.</span></div>
<br>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:24px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">OSGeo lacks leadership</span></h2>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:14.666666666666666px">Again quoting the Board of Directors’ page:</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:14.666666666666666px">The board’s primary responsibility is to efficiently and effectively make strategic decisions related to the running of OSGeo.</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:14.666666666666666px">I won’t bore you with the details, but a perusal of the board meeting minutes would indicate that </span><span style="font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:14.666666666666666px">strategy</span><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:14.666666666666666px"> is rarely, if ever, a part of the meetings.</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:14.666666666666666px">The emphasis on consensus-based decision making often leads to no decisions being made. I can’t count the number of discussions that have come up on the board list only to devolve into a morass of nit-picking and eventual lack of action when everyone tires of the discussion. What action that is taken is often to “delegate” to a (possibly inactive) sub-committee, then never follow up.</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:14.666666666666666px">Instead what we have is a great deal of inertia, little interest in changing things, and no clear indication of what the Board’s priorities are.</span></div>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:14.666666666666666px">If priorities do exist, they’re lost in a maze of confusing, incomplete and often contradictory information on the wiki. (Wikis — like abandonware for documentation.)</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:24px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">On pending irrelevancy</span></h2>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I encourage you to ask some random people in the open source geospatial community what OSGeo means to them. I would make a bet that the most common answer is a blank stare.</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I would ask the board members to come up with three things, other than FOSS4G, where the OSGeo membership has shown its importance to the community </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">as a whole</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> in the last two years. Something where people say, “Did you hear about</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> [exciting thing]</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> OSGeo is doin
g on </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">X</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">?” To be clear, I don’t mean just things that OSGeo has a finger in, but things that </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">need</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> OSGeo. If OSGeo disappeared tomorrow, would any of these projects be significantly affected?</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I don’t think it can be done. The OSGeo Foundation is sliding into irrelevancy — and it may already be there.</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">If anything should be seen as strategic for OSGeo, it’s FOSS4G, the foundation’s primary (sole?) source of income. Even regarding its flagship public event, the board is largely absent. Rather than provide adequate resources and planning, they instead rely on burning out volunteers, then make post-hoc demands on the way they </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">should</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> have done it, provide no future support for organizers to heed those demands, rarely follow up, then go on to repeat the same mistakes the following year. Honestly, it’s surprising that FOSS4G has
failed only once. (I think this is a reflection of the demand for the conference, not the blazing competence of OSGeo.)</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2015-July/014521.html"
style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:rgb(17,85,204);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Michael Gerlek brought this up</span></a><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> on the osgeo-discuss list in July, and probably has a more generous spin on it. He essentially argues that it’s time to declare mission accomplished and shut down or rebooted. I agree with his points, and I’m arguing that OSGeo can have something to offer, but it will require a major re-think of its mission.</span></div>
<br>
<h2 dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:24px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Fixing things</span></h2>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I hinted at this in my recent questions to the board candidates, but I want to be explicit here: </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-weight:700;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">OSGeo needs to evolve or die</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">.</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Here’s how I would do it:</span></div>
<br>
<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times
New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;margin-left:40px">
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The board needs to evaluate all of its goals, as defined on the About page, to decide if they are still truly goals. Define any new goals.</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times
New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;margin-left:40px">
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Ask the question: “What does it mean to succeed at this goal?” </span></p>
</li>
</ol>
</span>
<blockquote style="margin:0 0 0
40px;border:none;padding:0px"><span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">If the goal is vague, or ongoing, give a timeline: “What does success look like for this goal one year from now?”</span></p>
</span></blockquote>
<span>
<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" start="3">
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times
New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;margin-left:40px">
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Create measureable objectives for achieving those goals. Ask the question, “How will we know if we’ve succeeded?”</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times
New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;margin-left:40px">
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Prioritize the goals.</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times
New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;margin-left:40px">
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Allocate resources to the goals. </span></p>
</li>
</ol>
</span>
<blockquote style="margin:0 0 0
40px;border:none;padding:0px"><span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Obviously this is a tricky one, but I think we can look at this a balance between Importance and Effort.</span></p>
</span><span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">
</span></p>
</span><span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Spend money to reduce to the effort required, more money if the goal is more important — this might be the hardest cultural shift. Volunteer time is precious and easily discouraged. Make sure that you make it as efficient as possible by spending money when you can.</span></p>
</span><span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">
</span></p>
</span><span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">For example, many of the infrastructure services OSGeo provides can be easily outsourced to more featureful services that are more responsive and rely less on volunteer labor.</span></p>
</span></blockquote>
<span>
<ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" start="6">
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times
New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;margin-left:40px">
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Close the loop on tasks. When a task is delegated to a committee or individual, track its progress, both to know that it is or isn’t happening, and to be able to acknowledge and incorporate the work when it’s done. Failing to acknowledge people’s labor or to use the results of that labor will virtually guarantee that the volunteer does not continue to help.</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr"
style="list-style-type:decimal;font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times
New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;margin-left:40px">
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Evaluate success and failure. GOTO 1.</span></p>
</li>
</ol>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Aside: none if this will happen without a strong executive. Whether that position is paid or not is up to the board, but it’s clear that there needs to be someone who can make decisions without endless rounds of fruitless discussions. The board as currently constituted is not dysfunctional, but it is mostly afunctional. </span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I’m will go so far as to suggest this: Fly every board member who is available to a two or three day retreat. Get everyone in the same room, a professional facilitator to speed the process, then figure out what OSGeo is going to be and how to get there. Don’t fret excessively about the expense — this isn’t about saving money, it’s about saving OSGeo.</span></div>
<br>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">If you ask me, irrelevancy is a fate worse than death. </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Be bold!</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> It’s better to try to do something big and new then fail than to simply fade away and be forgotten.</span></p>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Though my comments above may sound harsh, they are sent with the very best of intentions. I want OSGeo to succeed, but OSGeo is never going to succeed if it doesn’t know what it’s try to succeed </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">at</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">.</span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Without real reform, I don’t see success happening, just irrele
vance. Here’s hoping this gets the ball rolling.</span></div>
<br>
<div
style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:14.666666666666666px;font-family:'Times New Roman';vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Darrell</span></div>
<br>
</span></div>
</div>
<br>
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</blockquote>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter,
Software and Data Solutions Manager
LISAsoft
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