[Ica-osgeo-labs] "Geo4All - MapStory Challenge" - FOSS4G 2016 Student Competitions

Thu Oct 1 01:24:05 PDT 2015

Dear Dimitris, 
I totally agree with your comments/questions.

I have just an answer about FOSS4G Eu and NA: they are not related to OSGeo from the economic point of view. So, we didn't have money from OSGeo and we don't need to give money to OSGeo. That is the reason why you can decide, as I did, to have a low cost conference.
Said that, I want to underline that the most of the "volunteer" work at FOSS4G Europe was done by people working with me, who accepted to work for the conference in their working time (paid by me) and in their free time. There are some exceptions (like Nicolas Bozon, who did a lot of volunteer work for the excellent website and some chairs). Also here, for the sake of completeness, I paid the room of Nicolas for three days, when he was in Como. This is just for clarifying.

Said that, in my opinion it will be a pity not to have in next edition NASA World Wind with us. 
Patrick did a lot of work for advertising about the conference (and for the NASA WW Challenge organization as well). I imagine that the young students from Alaska will have, thanks to NASA WW,  FOSS4G (and OSGeo as well) in their heart for all their life.

In any case, we are now discussing about 500 euro, this was the amount given by OSGeo. 
So, this is the other aspect, that I find a bit weird: we are making dust for nothing. If ICA and ISPRS wanted to do the same (ask to use a ICA or ISPRS products), there would be no intersections. 
So, everything is exagerated and I don't understand why. I repeat, for the sake of clarity, we are speaking of 500 euro. If i consider the time I'm spending for discussing this "case", it will be better for me to put this money from my pocket. 

What is unclear to me is this point:
- can we organize in the frame of next FOSS4G conferences challenges where students use FOSS4G products which are not OSGeo?
- which are the conditions?

Going toward this direction: can we present in next FOSS4G conferences work based on products that are not OSGeo?

I'm totally confused. I think that the Board has to clarify this aspect as soon as possible.
Shall I write the Board for asking?
Thanks and sorry for the lenght 
Good day to everybody.
Maria

----------------------------------------------------
Prof. Maria Antonia Brovelli
Vice Rector for Como Campus and GIS Professor
Politecnico di Milano

ISPRS WG IV/5 "Web and Cloud Based Geospatial Services and Applications"; OSGeo; ICA-OSGeo-ISPRS AB; NASA WorldWind Europa Challenge; SIFET
Sol Katz Award 2015

Via Natta, 12/14 - 22100 COMO (ITALY)
Tel. +39-031-3327336 - Mob. +39-328-0023867 - fax. +39-031-3327321
e-mail1: maria.brovelli at polimi.it
e-mail2: prorettrice at como.polimi.it

________________________________________
Da: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org <ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> per conto di Dimitris Kotzinos <kotzino at gmail.com>
Inviato: giovedì 1 ottobre 2015 01.34
A: ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org
Oggetto: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] "Geo4All - MapStory Challenge" - FOSS4G 2016      Student Competitions

Hi Jeff, all

before taking a final position on your - admittedly - strong note on the
Geo4All awards, I would like to ask some clarifications and offer some
comments hoping that this will facilitate the discussion and avoid
making it a conflict. Let me say first that I understand the reasoning
saying that an award funded by OSGEO, in the main OSGEO event, should
focus on OSGEO software.
So some requests for clarifications first:
- how do you see the award selection working: students are allowed to
submit when they are using at a 100% OSGEO projects? What happens when
for a specific student task an OSGEO project is not available? What
happens when the student add his/hers own source code to do something
(which could be in the form of a tool or an external library)? Do we
talk about full projects or also about non-OSGEO libraries used in
student projects?
Personally I would understand more a position that says that the
projects should use substantially (by this I mean playing a crucial role
in the project) at least one OSGEO project.
- I was confused by your answer to Gert-Jan: if the LOC has full
authority, then the instructions apply only to the Geo4All community?
- do you see this as a decision to be made by the OSGEO President or the
Board or by the Geo4All community, which in principle includes also
people not related to OSGEO (since it is a joint OSGEO/ISPRS/ICA initiative?
- why do you differentiate between the global and the regional FOSS4G?
Since now at the European and the NA FOSS4G are becoming equally big
with the international one (with their own limitations of course) I
cannot understand why you differentiate. At least from a Geo4All
perspective (but also from my perspective for OSGEO's future) I cannot
see the difference.

Some comments, if anyone is interested: from my academic (and thus maybe
limited or biased) perspective this is not a good way to advance. I
always try to get students to use the best tool they have for the job,
with one of the most important factors of choosing the best to be its
openness both in terms of software license but also (if relevant) in
protocols/standards and data used. So for me it would be at least weird
to tell them (important to note that we are teaching these students)
that excellence and quality and openness come after the OSGEO brand.
Also I think that most (I would even go as far as to say that all) of
our projects are of top quality and if a student is looking for a tool
to implement a project idea then they will be his/hers first choice.
Imposing a purity restriction actually gives a message that we are not
so confident on that.

Please take this as an effort to discuss this, as I said I understand
also the reasoning behind Jeff's message. I am not yet convinced that
these reasons supersede other principles and also provide more benefits
than the issues they raise.
My 2c and thanks for listening,

Best regards,
Dimitris
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