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Thank you Anne, <br>
<br>
to give us the possibility to speak up on these important topics.<br>
<br>
I was on the FOSS4GE[6] conference this week and had the opportunity
to talk to several other members of the organisation.<br>
I also attended (remotely) the BOF OSGeo business meeting yesterday<br>
and I did some reading (f.i. the blog of Steve Feldmann [1])<br>
<br>
So here are my 2c on the different topics:<br>
<br>
<br>
about the trivial aspects:<br>
---------------------------------<br>
First some easy things (where everybody is agreeing)<br>
- the conclusion of the BOF OSGeo business meeting is the creation
of an industry list[2] and everybody interested in the topic is
welcome to register on this list. I forwarded this mail also to that
list as to kickstart the discussion.<br>
<br>
about grant early bird price to FOSS4G for Charter members[4]<br>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
I agree. It is important for an organisation that people have the
chance to meet face to face with each other to build trust
relationships and friendships.<br>
We are a community of #people and human beings.<br>
<br>
<br>
about the travel budget and other costs for the organisation:<br>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
- As indicated above, I think we should discuss this topic more
deeper in the above list[2]. But to enable me to try to formulate an
answer that makes sense on the budget discussion I feel free to post
a statement here.<br>
So please react on this statement in the industry list, as this is
the right place to further discuss this topic.<br>
<br>
<br>
*axiom 1* OSGeo is a non for profit organisation of #people with a
passion about #Geo&#opensource<br>
(see also my mail concerning membership fees [3] )<br>
<br>
*bydefinition* Business should remain *outside* OSGeo <br>
(as it doesn't fit with a non profit organisation)<br>
(but some members of OSGeo - if not all - are involved in
business processes, as users, customers, developers or part of an
administrative, academic or industrial organisation, sometimes in
different roles)<br>
<br>
*axiom 2* OSGeo is a professionally governed organisation<br>
<br>
Well, in a professional governed organisation, you have a board,
representing the organisation, responsible and acting on behalf
everything the organisation does. The board is allowed to do that
and get the trust to do that every year expressed on the general
assembly.<br>
<br>
*axiom 3* OSGeo aims to be and stay a growing, strong and Healthy
organisation<br>
<br>
An organisation such as OSGeo is just like a living organism.<br>
Like all living organisms, an organisations starts, grows, falls,
stands up learning from previous mistakes, becomes stronger and
survives for living a long and prosperous live. In this process it
is important that, from a financial point of view, you earn more
than you spend. This also applies to non for profit organisations as
for profit organisation. <br>
<br>
Today OSGeo is already 10 years old (young). This is not yet a
mature individual, an important period of teenager is coming into
sight. A necessary process to become an adult.<br>
Like a child of 10 year old, I think we should progress handling
issues as money and business and relationships.<br>
Money is important to cover the necessary costs, at a minimum.<br>
<br>
So here I follow the decision of the board to use a certain amount
of travel budget to represent the organisation physically on places
where this is appropriate to do. I think the board is wise enough to
make these decisions on her own. Also other costs to fix broken
servers, or do something else that is necessary for the good
continuation of the organisation fall under these decisions. Of
course the board is responsible not to spend more than the income
statement allows.<br>
But this way of working is only temporary in my eyes. <br>
It is also the task of the board to help the 10 year young OSGeo
organisation to transform into a professional, open and transparent
governed mature vehicle.<br>
(without losing the strong points of childhood).<br>
<br>
i.e.: <br>
- a clear vision should be formulated about the further direction of
the organisation<br>
points like: <br>
- how to help the OSGeo projects in their shared mission<br>
- how to treat all the OSGeo projects as equal<br>
- how to motivate new projects to become a full incubated OSGeo
project<br>
- how to respond to non OSGeo GIS projects, convincing them to
join OSGeo<br>
- how OSGeo should embrace her members<br>
- how OSGeo should treat her sponsors<br>
- how OSGeo should partner with other organisations<br>
- how OSGeo should look to and promote #respectfull and
#transparent business<br>
- ... []<br>
<br>
- an estimate should be made of the to expecting income in 2015
(before the FOSS4G conference 2014 preferable - but ambitious,
better do this for 2016)<br>
- an estimate should be made of the expecting costs in 2015.<br>
- the exercise should be made to have more income than costs.<br>
- the result of this exercise is the budget for next year. This can
be presented on the general assembly, so all the members can approve
this budget. As long as the board respects this budget, the board
can decide on be halve all the members to do their job and take
their responsibility. If things are happening such as the board can
no longer respect this agreement, an escalation to the discuss
mailing list or a new general assembly should be organized.<br>
<br>
about OSGeo-Europe:<br>
-----------------------------<br>
Although I know there are several local chapters having their own
legal structure, I want to break a lance for maintaining one team,
one group of #people, one #OSGeo. Local chapters are a good thing
and should be promoted, but the strength of open source is to share
and to help each other to create strong technology, public available
source code, documentation, idea's, fun and friendships. I want to
break a lance than to go further what we do today, and really bridge
gaps between the different projects, but that are thoughts for
another topic, another time ...<br>
<br>
Last week I heard several comments on the restrictions a US based
legal non for profit organisation has, and the will and feeling that
OSGeo could do more, if we decide better and clearly what to do with
the money. It should be used in steering the GIS Open Source Future
in the right direction.<br>
These remarks and comments did me think of creating a European Fund.<br>
<br>
- having a US based org and a EU based Fund will spread the
organisation in an organic way further over the globe.<br>
- Money can be collected from sponsoring activities into the fund.<br>
- A European fund should be able to participate in European programs
such as Horizon2020 and others. [to be investigated]<br>
- The money can be governed by the EU Fund, but the decisions what
we should do with the money could be decided by the board of OSGeo,
respecting certain rules:<br>
<br>
- Specific European funded projects still need a budget to complete,
so the fund can be used to complete these budgets<br>
- With the available money, OSGeo can sponsor innovative idea's,
where a valorisation factor can be included. Innovative idea's can
be sponsored by a vehicle that understands the needs of an Open
Source Business.<br>
- If a project is successful it should result in new value for the
fund, giving more budget to sponsor other innovative projects. This
should be managed like a professional investment fund, so that the
balance remains positive and the leverage OSGeo can maintain on open
source related business grows year after year.<br>
<br>
I think I can help setting up a team that has the right technical
and legal expertise to create such a vehicle.<br>
<br>
OSGeo managed to grow from not existing into a world wide
organisation with #many members. OSGeo wishes to further grow into a
professional governed organisation (*axiom 2 and 3*), so I think we
should have the ambition to take this path further and create the
right environment to be able to reach that ambition.<br>
<br>
I want to end this mail by expressing my personal believe that doing
things voluntary, because we (the committing members) really are
convinced that sharing and working together to make the world a
better place and to give the opportunity to all (committing and
involved members) to use, distribute, document, improve gives a
personal benefit in happiness and satisfaction which can not be
reached by money.<br>
<br>
Have a nice weekend!<br>
In Ghent where I live 10 Days of party are starting tonight [5] and
I will leave now to drink a couple of beers (which I will pay myself
:-)<br>
<br>
Dirk Frigne<br>
<br>
[1]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://knowwhereconsulting.co.uk/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-free-lunch/">http://knowwhereconsulting.co.uk/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-free-lunch/</a>
<br>
[2] <strong><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:industry@lists.osgeo.org">industry@lists.osgeo.org</a></strong><br>
[3] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2014-July/013030.html">http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2014-July/013030.html</a><br>
[4] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4GDiscount">http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4GDiscount</a><br>
[5] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.gentsefeesten.be/en">http://www.gentsefeesten.be/en</a><br>
[6] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.osgeo.org/node/1422">http://www.osgeo.org/node/1422</a><br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 18-07-14 12:42, Anne Ghisla wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:20140718124253.4c28bf9c@galadriel.localdomain"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Hello all,
here are the minutes and logs of yesterday's Board meeting:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2014-07-17">http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2014-07-17</a>
(Minutes and motions are yet unapproved.)
There has been discussion over elections 2014, strategic funding, OSGeo
and Europe, and finally OSGeo's business model.
My comment is that this has been one of the (few) meetings where there
was less of the usual large consensus.
Therefore I feel important to get thoughts from OSGeo members other
than the current Board, as it is already happening in last emails. At
the moment we have no better way to collect opinions and comments
besides mailing lists and in-person discussions, that are notoriously
difficult to summarise. (A wiki page is good to summarise, but not to
discuss.) Nevertheless, I encourage members to speak up on these
important topics.
Best regards,
Anne
</pre>
<br>
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<br>
<pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Discuss@lists.osgeo.org">Discuss@lists.osgeo.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss">http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss</a></pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Yours sincerely,
ir. Dirk Frigne
CEO
Geosparc n.v.
Brugsesteenweg 587
B-9030 Ghent
Tel: +32 9 236 60 18
GSM: +32 495 508 799
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.geomajas.org">http://www.geomajas.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.geosparc.com">http://www.geosparc.com</a>
</pre>
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