[Journal] Board Support and Proposed Plan for the Journal Moving Forward

[Helena Mitasova]

On Feb 7, 2012, at 1:23 PM, Daniel P. Ames wrote:

> Hey Landon, 
> 
> I like your idea of two issues per year, one focused on the annual report, and one focused on technical and scientific papers. 

I like this idea too. The issue focused on technical paper can also come from FOSS4G,
given that there are usually many interesting contributions that don't make it into the special issue 
of TGIS or other established journal. Special topics issues sound good too - again they could be 
coming from a project or regional conference which should make it easier to get the submissions
all at approximately the same time tied to the conference presentations.

Helena
> 
> One option for the technical/scientific papers that I think would work really well would be to invite proposals for "thematic issues". The problem we have is that "open source GIS" invites such a huge spectrum of possibilities for technical/scientific papers, that it may be hard for people to recognize the optimal content to submit. 
> 
> So the idea here is that someone proposes a thematic issue on a specific topic, say for example, "Terrain Analysis" or "Uncertainty Analysis" or "Decision Support Systems" or "Digital Literature" or "Improvements in Geodatabases". The person who proposes the thematic issue becomes a guest editor for this Thematic Issue and is responsible to send out a call for papers, coordinate reviews, and ultimately select papers to include in the thematic issue. 
> 
> If we take this approach, then I think that these thematic issues will become very exciting and will get a lot of visibility because each one will cover the latest science/technology in a particular area of GIS. This will help researchers who are working on that topic, because they can grab the one issue on the topic of interest and get lots of great papers out of it. 
> 
> Anyway, this is my proposal. If you like it then, I'd be happy to work with you or others to implement this plan...
> 
> - Dan
> 
> --------------------------
> Daniel P. Ames, Ph.D. PE
> Associate Professor, Geosciences
> Idaho State University - Idaho Falls
> dan.ames at isu.edu
> geology.isu.edu
> www.mapwindow.org
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Landon Blake <sunburned.surveyor at gmail.com> wrote:
> Journal Team:
> 
> Please see the response from the OSGeo Board to my inquiry on the
> future of the Journal. It doesn't appear the Board feels strongly
> about the role of the Journal in the overall strategy of the
> organization. This was disappointing to me, but after a pep talk from
> Tyler I realize this is only as limiting as we allow it to be. I still
> feel strongly that the Journal has an important role to play in the
> following ways:
> 
> (1) Raising awareness of OSGeo projects, chapters, and events.
> (2) Providing a channel for the publication of peer-reviewed articles
> related to open source geospatial technologies.
> 
> The biggest challenge for me moving forward, now that Tyler is no
> longer the executive director, will be finding the time to put
> together a quality publication. I think I need to scale back my
> ambitions for the journal, even though that is a hard thing for me to
> do, if we are going to be successful, at least in the short term. Here
> is what I would like to propose:
> 
> (1) We publish an annual report each year by the end of the first
> quarter, highlighting OSGeo project and chapter activities from the
> previous calendar year.
> .
> (2) We publish an issue of the journal with peer-reviewed content by
> the end of the third quarter in each year.
> 
> I believe I can make a tentative commitment to serving as editor for
> each of these two (2) annual issues. Tyler said he would help with an
> issue covering FOSS4G proceedings. If we find more energy and
> volunteers, we can do more, but I think the two (2) issues a year will
> be all I can handle on my plate for the foreseeable future.
> 
> I'm going to shuffle some responsibilities at work this week so I can
> get the PDF version of the Journal out by the end of the week. It has
> lingered too long and I need to just put out the material I have
> available now.
> 
> We can then shoot for our goal of producing the 2011 Annual Report by
> the end of the third quarter.
> 
> Please let me know if you can help with the conversion of the 2010
> Annual Report to HTML/EPUB, or if you want to start collection 2011
> annual report items from chapters and projects.
> 
> Thanks for your continued support and patience.
> 
> Landon
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam at pobox.com>
> Date: Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 12:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [Board] Questions about the OSGeo Journal Post Tyler Mitchell
> To: Landon Blake <sunburned.surveyor at gmail.com>
> Cc: Board at lists.osgeo.org
> 
> 
> Landon,
> 
> The board discussed the role of the Journal in the context of the
> broader realm of OSGeo activities and in light of the currently
> volunteer and staff resources.  Even when Tyler was available to
> do quite a bit of work it was still a struggle to get the Journal out
> in a timely fashion.
> 
> So our position is that the journal isn't all that strategic to the
> foundation and barring volunteers wanting to pursue it we should
> scale back.
> 
> I'd like to see the existing 2010 report finished up and I'm willing
> to work personally with you on it.
> 
> Best regards,
> Frank
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