[OSGeo-Board] Welcome for New Board Members

[Jo Walsh]

dear Board,

As a relative newcomer and outsider to this community, I feel
amazingly honoured that so many good people would trust me to
represent their interests, and I want to do everything in my power to
justify that trust by working to make OSGeo a successful foundation,
closer internal collaboration enabling better external outreach.

I didn't come to Chicago, though i *really* wanted to, because i
didn't want to deprive someone who represents a strong software 
project, of a place there. The IRC feedback i received from Chicago 
about interest in open access to data initiatives was remarkable
to me. For the last couple of years, my open geodata writing and 
advocacy efforts have felt like stuffing letters into glass bottles
and setting them off to sea. It's so heartening to have this wave of
interest in the issue, open software and open data reinforcing each
others' ability to travel.    
 
I wanted to thank the 'Chicago 5' particularly, for approving of
Markus' signature of support for http://publicgeodata.org/Open_Letter
It makes so much difference to have meta-organisational support for a
policy message. The Public Geodata awareness effort is going well; the
Committee voted yesterday to approve all the amendments we argued for
them to approve, and reject the one it was crucial for them to reject.
(Now two months of horsetrading begin before the final vote...)
To have received OSGeo's support for this means a lot to me, and
redoubles my determination to direct energy into OSGeo's success. 

I hope I can bring my past work on RDF toolkits for collaborative
creation and maintenance of metadata, and connecting communication 
and organising tools together, to some good use within OSGeo as well.   

I look forward to the huge learning experience that collaborating with
you all is going to be, and to getting to know everyone better. 


jo