[OSGeo-Board] Re: People at FOSS4G

[Tyler Mitchell]

I'm hearing two different requests here:
1-to help support some others to go to FOSS4G and EuroOSCON
2-to bring in more help to fill volunteer holes at the two conferences.  

It would help to dissect these a bit - more below...

Jo wrote:
> > I don't know whether it would be appropriate for
> > the foundation to have a travel grant fund - it might be a bit
> > hard to get sponsorship for. I'm thinking something very limited for
> > people who really could benefit from the support.

In a way, this has already been happening, starting with the Chicago meeting, where Autodesk sponsored travel for many to make it to various meetings.  Obviously it's been ad hoc, and not done formally through a request to OSGeo, but has been very helpful for OSGeo.  This hasn't been tied to the OSGeo promo budget though.  I just mention it so that we don't think there has been money spent from our primary sponsor to allow for this already.

When the promo/travel budget was discussed earlier I thought it was more in the context of sending representatives places where there would otherwise be a less effective (or non existant) OSGeo presence.  I think it should be tied pretty tightly to specific events where OSGeo will clearly gain from a promo perspective and where that promo isn't covered off by others already.

Perhaps you are thinking more of a fund that is less tethered to promotion and more benevolent in nature?

Arnulf wrote:
> the response from projects to help staff booths at FOSS4G and 
> EuroOSCON has been near void. As Visibility is one of the key missions of 
> OSGeo I would very much support tapping into our VisCom budget to get 
> people help staff the booth.

Are the 'free' passes to the conference not enough to encourage more volunteers?  Or do we not have enough passes?  Maybe I'm wrongly assuming Europe is just full of FOSS folks ready to volunteer if they get a free shirt? :)

How many volunteers for FOSS4G and EuroOSCON do we have already and how many more do we need?

Isn't FOSS4G going to be so full of OSGeo and project related folks that we will be turning them away?

I'm sure you'd agree that the best value is tapping into more local volunteers as much as possible.  This worked well at Where 2.0 and OSCON - I grabbed a couple people I knew and then relied on referrals from them to get more people who were keen.  That helped build a local interest group, helped expand the OSGeo net further and was a win-win for everybody.  There were even a couple leftover tickets that we were able to give to some students who were doing some good (local) open source GIS work.

I suggest casting the net as wide as you can - i.e. on discuss list - and then zeroing in on people that you know are going to be there, who live in the area, who could come with a little encouragement or who know others in the area they could recommend.

As an aside, I'd much rather see promo funds go toward helping establish regional meetups than to just help keep people flocking around the world to the venue of the month.

I would at least like to see any funds used to bring in more help be focused on local people.  The reality is that a pseudo-OSGeo-related conference or regional user group is coming soon ... to a venue near you.  

I'm not saying we shouldn't try to find support for the two Jo mentioned, or try to give more incentive to build up our presence - but I just wanted to lay out my perspective and ask a few more questions.

Hope it helps,
Tyler

----- Original Message -----
From: Arnulf Christl <arnulf.christl at ccgis.de>
Date: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 8:27 am
Subject: [OSGeo-Board] Re: People at FOSS4G

> Jo Walsh wrote:
> > dear all, 
> > 
> > There are a couple of people who I wish I could find some kind of
> > financial support for to travel to FOSS4G and EuroOSCON who 
> would be
> > reallu useful to have there and are doing good work for open source
> > geospatial and OSGeo. I don't know whether it would be 
> appropriate for
> > the foundation to have a travel grant fund - it might be a bit
> > hard to get sponsorship for. I'm thinking something very limited for
> > people who really could benefit from the support. Or if this is a
> > mechanism we could establish and use soon enough in time for these
> > events. 
> > 
> > I see in the budget there is a slot for "Promotional 
> travel"(18KUSD) and 
> > i think that is what this would constitute. One of the people i 
> have in
> > mind is working a lot on FDO and would be a poster child at 
> EuroOSCON 
> > for open source community interexchange with MapGuide. The other is
> > a whiz kid working on GeoRSS who had a paper accepted at FOSS4G but
> > is in the very rural midwest and it's a big expense. He could 
> come and
> > make lots of interesting mashup stuff, sitting around on the 
> booth there. 
> > 
> > We're in a position to support / release funds for this sort of 
> thing? 
> > Or if this is a bit widespread or too soon, can anyone suggest how
> > these people *might* find travel support from other organisations?
> > 
> > cheers,
> > 
> > 
> > jo
> 
> Hi,
> the response from projects to help staff booths at FOSS4G and 
> EuroOSCON 
> has been near void. As Visibility is one of the key missions of 
> OSGeo I 
> would very much support tapping into our VisCom budget to get 
> people 
> help staff the booth.
> 
> Besides that it gives us a good chance to integrate those people 
> to our 
> goals individually. I'll be hanging around the booth all the time 
> anyway. People who had a chance to profit from OSGeo are better 
> volunteers. As we can see the bulk of work in OSGeo is done by a 
> few, we 
> need to get more. Paying people full time is one way to do it, 
> giving 
> incentives is easier and does not bind any money we don't have yet.
> 
> btw: I have heard lots of "oh why are we only a volunteer 
> organization" 
>  moans. There is some educating reading regarding the definition 
> of 
> volunteer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteer which might help 
> to 
> understand why volunteers are the best thing that can happen to us 
> from 
> a governance and long term visionary perspective. Especially in 
> highly 
> automized societies volunteer work is becoming more and more 
> important... sorry, I am rambling.
> 
> I must confess that results from requests for support so far have 
> been 
> disappointing (volunteers suck), even switching gender did not 
> help (or 
> shied them away :-).
> 
> Gary,
> if you feel you cannot hit reply immediately, I would like to 
> bring in a 
> motion at the next board meeting to use ~2.5k from the travel 
> budget to 
> be spent for travel costs for volunteers at the FOSS4G and 
> EuroOSCON 
> booths. (is that enough, Jo? Can you get more precise numbers?)
> 
> Regards,
> Arnulf (aka Seven)
> 
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