[Belgium] Official expression of interest forming a Belgian Chapter - DRAFT

Thu Jun 11 03:12:00 PDT 2015

Hi list,

Please review and comment on the tekst for the official expression of
interest to form a chapter to the OSGeo Board.
It is only a first draft, and some of the statements are my own. So feel
free to change or adapt them, or even delete when inappropriate.
Just my 2c

You can give feedback till Noon Saterday 13 June, as the board meeting
is 18 June and I want to send the proposal a couple of day's beforex²

Dirk

Dear OSGeo Board,

Reason for my mail is to officially express our interest to form a
Belgium local chapter of OSGeo.

1. self-organise

During the last FOSDem Geospatial devroom[1] OSGeo was represented. It
was a great opportunity for Belgium OSGeo members to meet each other and
start talking about organizing ourselves a bit more, so actions in
Belgium can be better supported. Belgium is, as a country divided in at
least 3 speaking languages and 3 official languages. The active OSGeo
community members today are either active in the OSGeo.nl, the OSGeo.fr
or in several OSGeo communities.

In the past there where already some OSGeo local activities:
OSGeoGhent - 13 June 2013 [2]
FOSDEM2014 - booth 1 & 2 Februari 2014 [3]
Be-OpenGIS-Fr - 6 November 2014  [4]
FOSDEM2015 - devroom - 31 Jan; 1 Februari 2015 [1]

This year we (OSGeoBE) have the ambition to organise a first FOSS4G-BE
on 29 October 2015 in Brussels. This event will also be used to announce
the birth of our Chapter (if the Board supports this).

In preparation for thisofficial express, a couple of meetings have
already taken place, one physical, most of them trough digital
communication (skype/IRC). The meeting minutes can be found on the OSGeo
wiki [5]

2. mission objectives

After discussion amongst the active local chapter members we come to the
following list of mission objectives:

* Community-building and networking
* Organisation of events

These two mission statements are working together. We believe it is
important to meet people face2face.
To help them to start open source initiatives, to start using open
source solutions, to establish an eco-system that benefits from the
cooperation, the sharing and the co-creation open source delivers.

* Lobbying

We think it is important to speak as one voice, and to get involved with
other organisations: administrations, industries, user groups, ...
OSGeo. Be will actively speak as an organisation to defend the OSGeo
open source spirit in the broader Belgium community (government,
academic, industry, other open initiatives).

* Networking with other OSGeos (notably OSGeo-fr and OSGeo.nl)

OSGeo Belgium will focus on local activities (Belgium based). OSGeo
Belgium will advertise and promote other OSGeo initiatives and invite
members of the other OSGeo chapters on the Belgium events or meetings.
We think that OSGeo Belgium can act as a bridge between several language
communities and cultures, because of it's unique composition.

* Support to higher levels of OSGeo

We believe that OSGeo only can grow if supported from the base. So OSGeo
Belgium is willing to help OSGeo where necessary, to leverage idea's or
act as an advisor if appreciated.

* Point of contact for EU related OSGeo activities (INSPIRE, H2020,...),
support the Lobby for the Open source industry in relation to the EU
commision

(someone had a good formulation of this last mission statement during
the last meeting, please feel free to change as appropriate)

3. The Belgium OSGeo Chapter proposes Dirk Frigne, Member of OSGeo since
2007, Charter member of OSGeo since 2013 to liaise with the OSGeo Board.

4. List of initial members:

The Belgium OSGeo Chapter has the support of the following initial
founding members (alphabetic - first name):

Ben Abelhausen [6] - liason with OSM - Belgium community
Dirk Frigne [7] - founding member of the Geomajas community
Gaël Kruwialis [8] - active memmber of the local FOSS momement in the
Brussels area - contact with the Brussels administration
Johan Van de Wauw [9] - OSGeo Advocate,
Maëlle VERCAUTEREN [10] - Coordinatrice du stage SIG Libres ARES
Marc Ducobu [11] - liason with OSGeo.fr
Moritz Lennert [12] - OSGeo Charter member, member (role) of the Grass
community
Pieter Colpaert [13] - link with the open knowledge foundation
Ruben Capelle [14] - please add
Tommy Ozeer [15] - OSGeo (charter?) member

Please add your name and link with OSGeo or FOSSGIS or open
organisations if I should forget someone

5. May I kindly ask the OSGeo Board to consider passing a motion forming
the Belgium chapter, and designating Dirk Frigne as the liason officer.

[Please Add your link to the list - if any]

[1] http://www.osgeo.org/node/1488
[2] http://www.geomajas.org/osgeogent2013
[3] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSDEM2014
[4] http://www.osgeo.org/node/1468
[5] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Belgium
[6]
[7] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Dirkf
[8]
[9]  http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Johanvdw
[10]
[11]
[12]  http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Mlennert
[13]
[14]
[15]

On 04-06-15 16:56, Moritz Lennert wrote:
> Hi again,
> 
> As mentioned in my previous mail, there is the question of officialising
> our existence within OSGeo.
> 
> On the wiki the following info is given [1]:
> 
> In order to form a chapter, the following steps should be taken:
> 
> -    "OSGeo Chapter" should self-organize (for instance in the OSGeo
> wiki, via OSGeo mailing list, etc), seeking to determine if a critical
> mass of interest exists to justify a chapter.
> 
> -    "OSGeo Chapter" should prepare a mission and objectives indicating
> the scope of the planned chapter (geographic or linquistic extent for
> instance).
> 
> -    “OSGeo Chapter” should propose an official representative to liaise
> with the OSGeo Board. If accepted by the board, the representative will
> be an officer of OSGeo.
> 
> -    “OSGeo Chapter” should submit an official expression of interest to
> form a chapter to the OSGeo board, listing initial members, mission,
> representative and other supporting information.
> 
> -    The OSGeo board shall then consider passing a motion forming the
> chapter, and designating the liason officer.
> 
> 
> We should discuss whether we want to launch this procedure now, so that
> we can officially declare ourselves the Belgian Chapter for FOSS4G-BE.
> Also: can we mention a chapter in the calls for the event now, even
> though we haven't been officially accepted by OSGeo ?
> 
> Moritz
> 
> [1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Local_Chapter_Guidelines
> _______________________________________________
> Belgium mailing list
> Belgium at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/belgium

-- 
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

http://www.geomajas.org
http://www.geosparc.com