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<font face="Lucida Sans" size="3">I rather see a massive opportunity for developing mutual understanding and seeing how the FOSS stack and propritary stacks line up and complement/ compete with each other... The reality going forward in South Africa is that while there is a huge push for FOSS coming over the horizon, proprietary software is very dominant and is not going to be displaced easily. FOSS and proprietary will be walking together for a while. Lets make friends and demonstrate inclusiveness :-) </font> </p>
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<font face="Lucida Sans" size="3">BTW, ESRI makes use of FOSS software and is engaged in some open source processes like the 52North initiative for example and I think were a sponsor at FOSS4G 2007. </font> </p>
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<font face="Lucida Sans" size="3">Graeme</font><br>>>> "Dewald Troskie" <nucleotic@gmail.com> 10/10/07 10:30 AM >>><br> </p>
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<font size="2" face="Arial" color="#0000ff">Hi All,</font> </p>
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<font size="2" face="Arial" color="#0000ff">Just a point - FOSS4G is about Free and Open Source GIS, not proprietry talks. That is against the spirit of the conference in my opinion - just as the name states. Otherwise we might as well invite the "Microsoft" of GIS (we all know whom I'm talking about) to jump onboard. If users are interested in that, then they should attend one of the ESRI User conferences.</font> </p>
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<font size="2" face="Arial" color="#0000ff">The debate may be a good idea, but it should be properly mediated to prevent scope creep and have proper direction without getting ugly (I have seen it happen before between professionals).</font> </p>
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<font size="2" face="Arial" color="#0000ff">Just a note. </font> </p>
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<font size="2" face="Arial" color="#0000ff">My Zim $5 worth.</font> </p>
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<font size="2" face="Arial" color="#0000ff">Dewald.</font> </p>
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<b><font face="Tahoma" size="2">From:</font></b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"> foss4g2008loc-bounces@lists.osgeo.org [mailto:foss4g2008loc-bounces@lists.osgeo.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Gavin Fleming<br style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 2"><b>Sent:</b> 10 October 2007 09:01 AM<br style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 2"><b>To:</b> foss4g2008loc@lists.osgeo.org<br style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 2"><b>Subject:</b> [Foss4g2008loc] Feedback from GISSA National Council meeting on 4Oct<br style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 2"></font><br> </p>
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I gave brief feedback from FOSS4G2007 to the GISSA National Council and asked for their comments on FOSS4G2008 organisation: </p>
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An idea was proposed for </p>
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blending proprietary and FOSS talks </p>
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: have themed <i><font face="Times New Roman">rooms</font></i> where delegates know certain streams or cross-cutting content like FOSS will be presented. Previous suggestions include having streams containing FOSS, though not necessarily keeping them in the same room, or randomly interspersing talks with FOSS content throughout a topic stream and just identifying them with some flag. The point was also made that many delegates will see a talk for the application, not for the tools used, i.e. to them it's not important whether FOSS or proprietary GIS was used. <o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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The </p>
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marketing </p>
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message </p>
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must be open and inclusive. While we may run a formal FOSS vs proprietary debate, confrontation is not the message. Most debate will occur in the presentations and corridors anyway. <o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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Re topics, it was suggested that we add </p>
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topics for business and government </p>
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delegates (pretty much what is being discussed on OSGeo-Discuss at the moment) such as<o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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FOSS GIS migration strategies<o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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FOSS GIS business case, FOSS vs proprietary TCO, etc. <o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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It was advised that we aim to </p>
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break even </p>
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with 600 delegates but plan space for 1000 delegates. <o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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Carrin would send a letter to GISSA members and vendors advising them of the conference and asking them to </p>
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plan for the time and budget to attend </p>
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. <o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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A request was made to </p>
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boost the academic component </p>
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of the conference. i.e. improve the options available to those who want peer review and publication of their papers. Antony Cooper will participate in this. <o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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Local </p>
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Cape</st1></st1> participation in the LOC should be boosted. So far Inge is the main person on the ground there. </p>
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Russell Hope </p>
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might want to get more involved and </p>
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Derek Clarke </p>
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will be approached ( </p>
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Gavin </p>
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will approach Derek) <o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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The whole Council asked to be placed on the LOC mailing list. <o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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In the development of an agreement between GISSA and OSGeo we need to clarify respective risks, contributions and benefits and draft the agreement accordingly. <o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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Gavin<o p="#DEFAULT"></o> </p>
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