[OSGeo-Standards] Fwd: [TC-Announce] Strengthening the OGC

[Jeff McKenna]

I like this very positive message sent out by the OGC, and am sharing it
with the OSGeo community.

-jeff




-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[TC-Announce] Strengthening the OGC
Date: 	Mon, 24 Jun 2013 17:44:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: 	Mark Reichardt <mreichardt at opengeospatial.org>
To: 	<tc-announce at lists.opengeospatial.org>



Dear OGC Members:



Over the past few months as the GeoServices REST candidate standard
neared a vote, the extraordinary dialog among members and the user
community has been passionate and often insightful. It has shown the
necessity for members to watch consortium proceedings with care and
actively engage in the process and voice concerns, as well as vote.
While all of us, members and staff, understand that from time to time
the Consortium membership will entertain contentious topics, I believe
we can and must do better to motivate discussion, seek agreement, and
work to facilitate decisions earlier in the process.



Recent events and the continued growth of OGC with an ever diversifying
membership are a reminder that our policies and procedures must evolve
to meet new challenges. The need for greater clarity and visibility of
leadership roles and accountability has been well highlighted through
the discussion. Staff and I are thankful for the many great ideas and
critical feedback (sometimes painful to read) that we have received from
members, our alliance partner organizations and the public.  I believe
we now have an excellent opportunity to review the Consortium's vision
and mission as well as our policies and procedures. While our resources
are limited, there are times when renewed effort to assess and improve
the effectiveness of the organization becomes a priority.  OGC has done
this many times in the past, and I believe we are again at this point of
opportunity. However, we cannot do this without the support and
commitment of our members.



I have asked Geoff Zeiss and Jack Pellicci from our board to join me in
establishing a leadership group to solicit your ideas and concerns, and
to produce a slate of recommendations for action within 90 days. If you
have an interest in working with us as part of this group to represent
the interests of the OGC membership please contact me as soon as
possible. An online forum will also be created to provide an open and
accessible environment for members and the public to participate. We
will be setting up a series of online meetings in the coming weeks, with
a first meeting scheduled on 2 July for OGC members only. Registration
details can be found here:
https://portal.opengeospatial.org/public_ogc/register/130702ideas.php.
A meeting open to the public will be scheduled for 11 July
withseveralfollow-up sessions for members and the public planned for
lateJuly and early September. We’ve also set up a Wiki and email
address to receive your feedback (below). My commitment is to have
resulting recommendations brought to OGC membership, staff and the OGC
Board of Directors for action as part of our upcoming September TC/PC
meetings in Frascati, Italy.



As we engage in this assessment, I do not want us to lose sight of our
achievements.  Since 1994, the OGC has grown to be much more than a
standards organization. We have become the world's leading forum for
technology providers and users to meet, discuss and test the advancement
of location and spatial data sharing and service interoperability in an
increasingly broad range of disciplines. I thank OGC members and
stakeholders for their commitment and continued support of our vision
and mission. I look forward to working with you to strengthen the OGC.



Mark Reichardt

President & CEO

Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)

+1 301 840-1361

+1 240 899-8026 Mobile

mreichardt at opengeospatial.org <mailto:mreichardt at opengeospatial.org>





The OGC: Making Location Count...

www.opengeospatial.org/contact <http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact>



Details on ways to participate:



·         Ideas4OGC Wiki:  - Feel free to contribute to the discussion
on the Ideas4OGC Wiki. We are working to prepopulate the Wiki with
suggestions received to date.

http://external.opengeospatial.org/twiki_public/Ideas4OGC/WebHome



·         Send your ideas to this email list
Ideas4OGC at lists.opengeospatial.org
<mailto:Ideas4OGC at lists.opengeospatial.org>



·         Meetings – OGC will convene several one hour online meeting
sessions in early and late July and again in early September for the
convenience of interested attendees around the globe. The specific
schedule for the first members only session is as follows:

cid:image003.png at 01CE70F0.8E264DE0



Please register for this session at
https://portal.opengeospatial.org/public_ogc/register/130702ideas.php

You may also register your interest in attending a future session.
We’ll keep you posted by email regarding future online meeting dates.



·         Access information will be sent upon confirmation of your
registration.    Sessions will be limited to the first 25 registrants.
This will allow ample time for all ideas to be heard and discussed.  If
demand greatly outpaces available slots, we’ll do our best to schedule
additional sessions.