[OSGeo-Discuss] About OSGeo...

[Frank Warmerdam]

Bob Basques wrote:
> Whoa,
> 
> So a press release can only be passed through for an existing OSGEO 
> project?  What good is that to the wider community?
> 
> Or should there be another example added to the "Conception" section of 
> the "press Release" page?
> 
> That part on the bottom about costs for distribution is an interesting 
> piece, can anyone pay to have their press release handled by OSGEO?  
> Should anyone be able to?

Bob,

I'm not sure I followed the preceding discussion closely.  I will say there
is a difference between OSGeo passing a press release on through the
OSGeo Announce mailing list (and the web site) as opposed to OSGeo actually
issuing a press release to the world using the press release methodology
described on the wiki.

The first (passing on announcements) has a reasonably low threshold.
Basically the news editors (Tyler and I current) make a judgement call on
whether we feel the announcement is going to be of interest, and is
supportive of OSGeo's goals and we balance it against "too much frequency
concerns".

Major projects announcements from non-OSGeo open source geospatial projects
generally pass this test though the "major" test is somewhat higher for
non-OSGeo projects than it is for OSGeo projects.

As for us issuing actual press releases, I think we should only being
doing this for stuff that is very directly an OSGeo announcement.
Partly this is because it uses up a bit of OSGeo karma with the press
folks every time we hit them with a release.  We don't want them to start
dismissing our press releases because we seem to be coming out with a new
one every week.  And the other item is that there is a great deal of work
in preparing and issuing a press release, including fairly stringent
review of the release.  I'm only aware of two or three press releases
we have actually made it through the hoops to issue in this manner due
to the effort involved.  One press release in the queue (advertising
the service provider directory) basically stalled and died because I
couldn't pull together the effort to make it happen.  So on that basis,
I'm not too keen on trying to issue press releases on other projects
behalfs (or even on behalf of OSGeo projects unless they are really
earth shattering).

I would note that the OSGeo press release guidelines can be used by
anyone to issue their own press release (as long as they don't
use OSGeo's logins, or issue it in our name).  I succeeding in doing
this a while ago for the "libtiff BigTIFF upgrade" effort on my own
with guidance from those pages.  But because that was my own effort
it did not have to go through the usual OSGeo review process.

All my own opinion of course.  We don't really have very specific
guidelines on what OSGeo will issue PRs on or pass on to the announce
list.  To some extent it depends on volunteers willing to do work and
on the judgement of various parties.

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 OSGeo, http://osgeo.org