[OSGeo-Board] Getting people involved.

[Chris Holmes]

Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Chris Holmes wrote:
> 
>> Ok, so I made a page on how to get started: 
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Getting_Started  Feel free to hack on 
>> it, I'm hoping it can help people who want to help out and don't know 
>> where.  
> 
> 
> Chris,
> 
> My main issue with this page is that anyone at large cannot
> start a committee.  A committee needs to be launched by the board
> and we don't really want a huge proliferation of formal committees.
> 
> Perhaps we need a concept of "special interest group".  Special
> interest groups could be relatively light-weight organizationally.
> They basically get a mailing list, and can setup documents in the wiki.
> But SIGs wouldn't need to formally report to the board.  Of course, they
> also can't speak for the foundation, though they could make a 
> recommendation
> to the board.
> 
> Efforts like the "core curriculum" or possibly even the "public geodata"
> could be SIGs instead of committees or projects.  Then we could encourage
> people to start a SIG if they wish.
I like this thought.  Have a set process to move from idea to SIG to 
endorsed committee.  Thanks for the reality check, you're right, we 
don't want a ton of committees.  Indeed we want an incubation process 
for committees, just like we do for projects...

> 
>  > The page right now isn't super helpful, it basically says join
> 
>> everything and figure it out.  It'd be nice if there were a clearer 
>> path to how to get involved, where to start on the wiki, how an idea 
>> can grow into a committee, ect.  If anyone has ideas on how to do that 
>> better then just modify that page.  We also probably should improve: 
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Volunteers_Needed a good bit as well.
> 
> 
> Agreed.
> 
>> I also started a list for members to put up some information about 
>> themselves: http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/All_Members
> 
> 
> I want to encourage all members (associate as well as voting) to sign
> up here, but I am concerned it will become very cumbersome to edit or
> fix up the list as it grows to the hundred-member mark.  I don't really
> have a solution for that though.
The ideal solution for me would be for collabnet to allow one to add 
lat/long and 'about' fields to one's profile, and then could generate 
the list based on that.  I agree that the wiki is imperfect, my thought 
was just release early and often, refactor later.

> 
>> If people think these pages are decent, I'd like to send an email to 
>> all the current voting membership, encouraging them to help out, 
>> pointing at the getting started page, and remembering them that we're 
>> all building this together, and it's an open process.  And getting 
>> them to add themselves to the member list.
> 
> 
> Daniel has the members at mail.osgeo.org list setup and we should send out a
> welcome message.  I would appreciate suggestions on what to put into that
> welcome.  Obviously, pointing people to the Getting_Started document would
> be the main item.
I'd also encourage them to take a lead role in encouraging the 
participation of others.  Though actually we may want to discuss that? 
Tyler seemed to be a bit against the idea of everyone being a member, 
that voting members should have some greater responsibility.  I would 
say that they should take on more responsibility, but that such a thing 
shouldn't be spelled out to new users, though it should be obvious by 
who does good work.

But yeah, it'd be good to emphasize that their energy will help build 
the foundation, and define what it is.  It'd also be good to encourage 
them to nominate people for the board, as we haven't got any nominations 
yet.

Chris


> 
> Best regards,

-- 
Chris Holmes
The Open Planning Project
thoughts at: http://cholmes.wordpress.com
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