Consider this...<div><br></div><div><div>Rather than the local/regional conferences being renamed to something unwieldy like "osgeo-conf-my-location", it would be awesome if there were a series of "FOSS4G" named events around the world every year. This would really BUILD the brand name of FOSS4G by INCREASING visibility of the brand. This would not dilute it, but would pump it up. <div>
<br></div><div>Imagine: FOSS4G So-Cal, FOSS4G CEE, FOSS4G Japan, FOSS4G Netherlands all helping to build up the FOSS4G name!</div><div><br></div><div>Then... wait for it... rather than the local meetings changing their name, instead the main annual meeting changes ITS name... The main, sanctioned, world wide gathering of the tribes every year should carry the very clear and unambiguous title,</div>
<div><br></div><div><b style="font-size: large; ">"FOSS4G World Conference"! </b>(or "FOSS4G World Roundup" or "FOSS4G Global Mashup" - I kind of like the last one...)</div><div><br></div><div>
This should start with Beijing and be used at every annual, OSGeo sanctioned, global event thereafter - one per year. From a marketing point of view, this is clearly the way forward. Build the brand, spread it around, get people using it and encourage all these local organizers to fully promote "<b>FOSS4G World Conference</b>" at their meetings. </div>
<div><br></div><div>To put it in narcotics theory terms, the local events become the "gateway drug" eventually leading them to the hard core <b>FOSS4G World Conference</b>. People get hooked by attending FOSS4G-local and are eventually drawn to the hard core world event. </div>
<div><br></div><div><div>- Dan</div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------</div><div>Daniel P. Ames, Ph.D. PE<br>Associate Professor, Geosciences<br>Idaho State University - Idaho Falls<br><a href="mailto:dan.ames@isu.edu" target="_blank">dan.ames@isu.edu</a><br>
<a href="http://geology.isu.edu/" target="_blank">geology.isu.edu</a><br><a href="http://www.mapwindow.org/" target="_blank">www.mapwindow.org</a><br></div><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Dave McIlhagga <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dmcilhagga@dmsolutions.ca">dmcilhagga@dmsolutions.ca</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">+1 from me on this as well.<div><br></div><div>I was somewhat indifferent to this until I considered the reality that if there's enough demand for local open source geospatial conferences -- they will happen regardless of the brand that's attached. The opportunity to share the branding then brings these events (including the international event) closer. One side effect of this - with more local events comes more people interacting with OSGeo and the FOSS4G brand. That should broaden the pool of potential attendees for the International FOSS4G Event. </div>
<div><br></div><font color="#888888"><div>Dave</div></font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><div><br></div><div><br><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 2011-10-07, at 10:28 AM, Peter Batty wrote:</div><br><blockquote type="cite">
I am not quite sure if I am officially on the conference committee yet, but I vote +1 if I have a vote. <div><br></div><div>I recognize the concerns over potentially diluting the global FOSS4G, but the reality is that that great majority of people don't have the opportunity to travel to the other side of the world to attend a FOSS4G event (I will publish more numbers on this shortly, but in all cases so far, a substantial majority of attendees at every global event has been from the continent hosting the event). I think that expanding local and regional events allows many more people to get the benefits of attending an open source geospatial conference, and I think that is what OSGeo should be about. I think it's better to have one name for these events, that helps all of them build on the success of others. There is already a well established precedent for using the name FOSS4G for local events, with the Japanese event. We can still clearly indicate that a given event is the designated global FOSS4G or a regional event.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 4:19 AM, Cameron Shorter <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com" target="_blank">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>On 7/10/2011 4:57 AM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Motion: The OSGeo Conference Committee on behalf of OSGeo<br>
declares that it has no objection to the name FOSS4G-CEE being<br>
used for an open source geospatial conference in central and eastern<br>
europe organized by a group including Karel Charvat and Jachym<br>
Cepicky.<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
-0 (based on Jeff's comment that local foss4g events will cause confusion in the market place). However, I do suggest that we encourage local conferences to select a common name and encourage re-use of similar guidelines. Maybe osgeo-conf-cee, osgeo-conf-japan, ... with url: <a href="http://2011.cee.conf.osgeo.org/" target="_blank">http://2011.cee.conf.osgeo.org</a><br>
Note, I don't feel strongly about my comments and don't want it to block this motion if the majority of people support it.<br><font color="#888888">
<br>
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Cameron Shorter<br>
Geospatial Solutions Manager<br>
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Mob: <a href="tel:%2B61%20%280%29419%20142%20254" value="+61419142254" target="_blank">+61 (0)419 142 254</a><br>
<br>
Think Globally, Fix Locally<br>
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