<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Hi Till,<br>
When I was FOSS4G chair I was surprised by the number of requests I
received for free passes to the conference, with each requester
surprised that I might even say "no". Requests came from developing
countries, students, presenters, chairs of spatial industry groups,
media, and more.<br>
<br>
In thinking about grants, I suggest asking "What is the return on
investment?" It is worth considering OSGeo priorities [1].<br>
For student grants, I think "return" equates to "how many people are
swayed to make use of OSGeo Software" because of the grant?<br>
<br>
If 10 students hear about the competition, 4 put in a poster, 1
changes their career path to include OSGeo Software, then I think
the return on investment is low.<br>
<br>
If an influential member of a government department in a developing
country returns from FOSS4G and initiates changes to a government
agency to make use of OSGeo Software, then that would be a high
return on investment. <br>
<br>
David's point is good, about asking students to contribute to the
conference. (This reduces the "investment". If someone wants a free
pass, I think the right thing to do is too offer something in
return. Media offer free coverage and a marketing pipeline in return
for their free pass. At our event, we offered a free pass to a
student who volunteered to film conference events, and another free
pass to a sys-admin who kept the wifi running. <br>
<br>
One thing worth considering is cost of conference versus cost of
travel. As such, I'd give priority to local candidates over
international ones as you get a better return on investment.<br>
<br>
[1] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_of_Directors#Board_Priorities">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_of_Directors#Board_Priorities</a><br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/02/2016 3:55 am, David William
Bitner wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAEqvsZt+Xs4eyWu6Lf54JTi-HzY7E2Leo_1g68bD79qg1S-HZQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Till,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thank you very much for sending this out, sorry that I am
just responding now.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I think that it is a great idea to separate out the budget
for these scholarship programs from the conference budget to
ensure that we can support them across the years and
locations.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I see two main ways that we can support this from the OSGeo
side.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>1) Set aside (and fundraise for) funds administered by
OSGeo and made available to provide scholarships across ANY
OSGeo supported event (FOSS4G, regional FOSS4G-type events,
code sprints)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>2) Set aside (primarily from FOSS4G revenue, potentially
with additional fundraising) funds to be specifically budgeted
for FOSS4G LOC's to administer scholarship programs.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>In both of these situations we should make clear
expectations at bid time or for any other events that wish to
take part in scholarship programs of what rate an LOC would be
compensated for for any registration expenses are paid out of
scholarship funds (ie always get a published student rate or
are pinned to the nominal "additional head" cost that covers
actual food/printouts/shirts but not necessarily the "share"
of fixed costs). Additionally if an LOC can require
scholarship recipients to take on volunteer tasks etc.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Certainly a lot of details to work through about how to
make all this work, but I would personally love to see a
central OSGeo fund that could be used for registration and/or
travel expenses that could be applied not only to FOSS4G but
to other events and code sprints as well.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>David</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 4:52 AM, <span
dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:till.adams@fossgis.de" target="_blank">till.adams@fossgis.de</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi
conference committee,<br>
<br>
just a reminder of my email, I sent you a week ago - see
below. Unfortunately I received no response to my ideas.<br>
I talked to Steven about that yesterday, and he more or
less agrees on my ideas.<br>
<br>
Are there any further opinions or should I contact the
board directly?<br>
<br>
I've CC'd Christoph, who is new in our LOC and from now on
the chair for the travel grant programm, so please include
him in further discussions.<br>
<br>
Till
<div class="HOEnZb">
<div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Am 2016-01-26 16:01, schrieb <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:till.adams@fossgis.de" target="_blank"><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:till.adams@fossgis.de">till.adams@fossgis.de</a></a>:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Hi Conference Committee,<br>
<br>
long time no real news from Bonn, but in short: Up
to now preparation<br>
of FOSs4G is running quiet well, we just released
our Call for<br>
Submissions as you might (should) have noticed.<br>
Anyhow, there are some ideas we have that are quite
interesting for<br>
all FOSs4G's in the future and therefore I take the
opportunity to<br>
discuss with you.<br>
<br>
<br>
1. Travel Grants<br>
Seouls team (Sanghee, correct me if I am wrong) set
up a travel grant<br>
budget, AFAIK he took 10k $ from his budget and also
enabled attendees<br>
to make a donation for the travel grant budget.<br>
People from developing countries then were
encouraged to apply for<br>
such a travel grant and Seoul LOC paid for a number
of them for travel<br>
costs and also gave these people a free/reduced
ticket. They used<br>
world banks country rating to forgive these grants,
which is a good,<br>
because widely as independent accepted, way to
decide on that.<br>
<br>
In general I really like the idea of enabling people
from developing<br>
countries to attend a FOSS4G. I think especially in
developing<br>
countries Open Source could be a key technology to
really improve<br>
situations there and keep knowledge and with that
also money inside<br>
the country.<br>
<br>
On the other side, we, Bonn's LOC, now have the same
problem all<br>
former and upcoming LOC's had/will have: First you
see all the costs,<br>
that come up and although we are in a good hope,
that FOSS4G 2016 in<br>
Bonn will become a great success, we don't know,
what really happens.<br>
Taking both things into account, I'd like to apply
at OSGeo board for<br>
the following:<br>
<br>
I'd like OSGeo to set up a fixed budget for travel
grants for a<br>
FOSS4G. If (our) FOSS4G becomes a success, OSGeo
will get this money<br>
back anyhow, because Bonn's LOC agreed to give at
least 90% of our<br>
surplus to OSgeo. If we make a loss, the money from
OSGeo is gone and<br>
doesn't enhance our financial desaster ;-). The
other way around would<br>
be, that we decide on having that (like Sould team
did) on our risk,<br>
but the money for OSGeo is lost anyhow, because at
the end of the day,<br>
the money comes out of OSGeo pocket anyhow. So why
not taking the<br>
opportunity to make that a fixed part for all
FOSS4G-conferences?<br>
<br>
Just FYI: I will also apply for some more money at
FOSSGIS (local<br>
german speaking OSGeo chapter), which have the same
goals as OSGeo.<br>
<br>
<br>
2. Student Award<br>
In Seoul also there has been a student award, or to
be honest, they<br>
were 4, 2 from OSGeo and 2 from LOC Seoul,
respectively one for the<br>
best student-poster and for the best
student-presentation. The<br>
presence of twoxtwo student awards caused a little
confusion in my<br>
eyes. I think it was around 500$ each award,
directly given to the<br>
winners in the closing session.<br>
I know that it was a quiet spontaneous decision on
how to decide on<br>
the winners which was just made right during Seouls
FOSS4G lunch-time<br>
;-). This also could become a now established and
fixed part of a<br>
FOSS4G - and hits also one of the main goals OSGeo
has - to prosper<br>
education with OSGeo software.<br>
<br>
<br>
So here are my questions:<br>
A) Would conference committee support us and
upcoming teams by<br>
advising the board to setup a fixed travel grant
budget?<br>
B) Same question for the student award?<br>
<br>
<br>
Many thanks for your time ;-)<br>
<br>
Till<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Conference_dev mailing list<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:Conference_dev@lists.osgeo.org"
target="_blank">Conference_dev@lists.osgeo.org</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev</a></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<div><br>
</div>
-- <br>
<div class="gmail_signature">************************************<br>
David William Bitner
<div>dbSpatial LLC</div>
<div>612-424-9932</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<br>
<pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
Conference_dev mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Conference_dev@lists.osgeo.org">Conference_dev@lists.osgeo.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev">http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev</a></pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter,
Software and Data Solutions Manager
LISAsoft
Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf,
26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009
P +61 2 9009 5000, W <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.lisasoft.com">www.lisasoft.com</a>, F +61 2 9009 5099</pre>
</body>
</html>