[OSGeo-Board] About Sponsorship for local OSGeo Chapters

[Frank Warmerdam]

On 12/13/06, venka.osgeo <venka.osgeo at gmail.com> wrote:
> 1  Will OSGeo Japan Chapter call for Japan domestic sponsor separately
> as a part of OSGeo.org sponsorship ?

Venka,

I think the OSGeo Japan Chapter *could* solicit domestic sponsors
for the local chapter if they wanted to, but if the sponsorship stays
with the local chapter then I *think* that the sponsor would be
considered a local sponsor, to be appropriately appreciated on the
local chapter web site.

> 2  Is the local sponsorship scheme same as OSGeo.org sponsorship ?

If the sponsorship stays with the local chapter, then I don't think
it would be the same as the sponsorship program described on the
web site.  What has been known as "Foundation Sponsorship".

> 3  When OSGeo sponsor page will be available on the web site ?

Good question!  We (the fundraising and/or web committees) need to
get on this immediately as we now have at least one paid up sponsorship
in addition to the support of Autodesk which will presumably be treated
as a sponsorship.

> 4  Will OSGeo sponsors be invited to next FOSS4G Conference ?

The sponsorship page indicates that Sustaining and Principle
sponsors will special rights to sponsorship selection for the
conference.   Neverthless, I'm pretty sure that there will be sponsorship
opportunities for the conference for any organization interested in doing
so.

Actually, I would turn the question around and ask "invited in what
capacity"?  I think the conference is open to any individuals that
wish to register, and I don't think it is particularly hard to qualify for
exhibit space for vendors willing to pay for it.

> 5 Can the sponsor specify the purpose for which the sponsorship
> fee can be used?

Generally no, not through the foundation sponsorship program,
though some advice might be well received.   There is also a
concept of "project sponsorship" in which case sponsorship
can be applied to a specific project, but only if a project is
participating in the project sponsorship program.  The only
project I am aware of that is participating is the GDAL/OGR project.

> Advice for the board and Tyler and support for local sponsors is
> highly appreciated.

If the potential sponsor is primarily interested in supporting
efforts in Japan then I'd suggest the Japan Chapter consider
establishing some guidelines for local sponsorship and solicit
the funds for local use.

If that approach is considered inadvisable, then I'd encourage
soliciting the support as a general foundation sponsorship and
perhaps the foundation could make some special effort to fund
VisCom activities in Japan if that is the desire of the sponsor.

> Additional information that the proposed sponsors have provided is
> as below
>
> > They want to modify / source code of MapGuide Open Source to support PNG8
> > compressed image data as well as current PNG24 for the mobile devices as a
> > MGOS client. They have already proposed their idea to mobile
> > telecommunication provider and their customer welcomed. Thus, they want to
> > start the development and make an appeal their activities and contribution
> > to FOSS4G to public to get more business and make their customer confident.

Note that sponsorship does not provide any guarantee that particular
technical suggestions will be accepted.  The above contributions should
be taken to the MapGuide PSC, though it certainly sounds like a very
positive development.

I would like to stress that all the above is not the "final word" of
the foundation, but rather an opinion of one director of how the
current sponsorship program should be interpreted and a
few suggestions.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent