[OSGeo-Board] Service Provider Directory

[Dave McIlhagga]

I like it.

Except the personal endorsement of Dave M - ug now it's time to run for 
the woods. :)

If we agree this is intended to be as wide open as possible .. the more 
the merrier, I'm all for it!

Sorry for all the noise -- my radar went off when it looked like we were 
creating a hierarchy of openness ... this feels much better. And I think 
it leaves us room to bump organizations up to Sponsorships.

Good work guys!

Dave



Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
> How's this:
> 
> I'd be willing to see ~1 line of text (name, link, 20 word summary) for
> any organizing willing to say that they "provide software or services in
> support of OSGeo's goals and mission" or some such.  If ESRI is willing
> to agree to that statement, then great!  By making the organization
> explicitly agree to that statement at the top of the page, then we limit
> just anyone from using our "advert service" for free.  (Worst case, the
> Board or some delegated authority thereof is in charge of investigating
> and removing fraudalent listings if/when any complaints come in.)
> 
> All of that is a free service we would provide to the community of OSGeo
> users and supporters.
> 
> Then:
> 
> If the organization pays us $X, then they can also get more/better
> stuff: use of the "I'm a sponsor" icon in their listing, an additional
> 20 words of description, their own company logo in the listing,
> placement on a better/preferred page, personalized message of
> endorsement from Dave M, etc :-)
> 
> -mpg
>  
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jason Birch [mailto:Jason.Birch at nanaimo.ca] 
>> Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 3:49 PM
>> To: Dave McIlhagga
>> Cc: Tyler Mitchell; dev at webcommittee.osgeo.org; OSGeo-Board
>> Subject: RE: [OSGeo-Board] Service Provider Directory
>>
>>
>> My point was that if ESRI (or Autodesk or anyone) wants to define
>> themselves as an open source solution provider, then they would be
>> welcome on the list.  They would also select the applications 
>> that they
>> provide solutions for from a fixed list.  This isn't a "keep ESRI out"
>> organisation, it's an organisation for promoting open source software.
>> Getting ESRI on the list would actually be a big win for us :)
>>
>> Jason
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dave McIlhagga [mailto:dmcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca] 
>> Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 15:43
>> To: Jason Birch
>> Cc: Tyler Mitchell; dev at webcommittee.osgeo.org; OSGeo-Board
>> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Board] Service Provider Directory
>>
>> Ok - so let's try a specific example, that would happen to 
>> affect me, to
>> see how this would work.
>>
>> So based on this argument - DM Solutions could list our new DMSG
>> Premiere commercial support service for MapGuide Open Source (because
>> it's based on the open source technology), but Autodesk couldn't list
>> MGE Subscription because it's a proprietary product based on MGOS.
>>
>> Furthermore - Autodesk business partners who provide services 
>> around MGE
>> could not list their services, but DMSG business partners for DMSG
>> Premiere could list their services ... Sounds good to me :) but
>> seriously I really don't think this would be appropriate. In 
>> particular
>> I have very big concerns about OSGeo defining who is open source
>> friendly, and who is not.
>>
>> This is just one example of a potential major problem with going down
>> this road.
>>
>>
>> You don't see an equivalent of this in the Apache Foundation 
>> -- likely 
>> for precisely this reason.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Jason Birch wrote:
>>> We would police reactively.  If the community notices a 
>> provider that
>>> does not actually offer the services stated, we'd take care of them
>>> (euphemism?).
>>>
>>> The intention was to make this a service (not product) directory for
>>> providers that give support directly for open source packages.  I
>> don't
>>> think that ESRI offers direct support for GDAL, but if they 
>> do I think
>>> that they would be welcomed in the list.
>>>
>>> Excluding languages and products from the directory would limit its
>>> usefulness to the users.
>>>
>>> Jason 
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Dave McIlhagga [mailto:dmcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca] 
>>> Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 14:34
>>> To: Jason Birch
>>> Cc: Tyler Mitchell; dev at webcommittee.osgeo.org; OSGeo-Board
>>> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Board] Service Provider Directory
>>>
>>> I understand both needs for sure -- just trying to see if there is a
>>> means to achieve both goals.
>>>
>>> Perhaps one way to make this simpler would be to restrict 
>> the service
>>> provider directory to simply an organization name and link 
>> to website
>> so
>>> that it doesn't cannibalize the promotional opportunity on the
>>> sponsorship side. Otherwise we have this weird situation 
>> where you can
>>> get more info available to people for free than you can get by being
>> an
>>> Associate Sponsor.
>>>
>>>
>>> Also - how is this policed? Who has authority to determine that
>> Company
>>> X is a valid service provider, and Company Y is not? That seems like
>>> some very murky water to me. ESRI has GDAL built into their software
>> --
>>> so can they include their services on OSGeo? If we say no to ESRI,
>> would
>>> we not have to say no to Autodesk since MapGuide Enterprise is a
>>> proprietary bundling of MGOS? That doesn't seem fair. OTOH if we say
>>> anybody can be a service provider if they make use of any OSGeo
>>> technology (which is most of the Geospatial universe) -- 
>> than is there
>>> any value to it?
>>>
>>> Ok - devil's advocate I know ... I'm not suggesting one 
>> thing is right
>>> or wrong -- simply that it gets extremely gray. We might be 
>> creating a
>>> monster we don't know how to manage down the road.
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dave McIlhagga
>>> President, DM Solutions Group
>>>
>>> http://www.dmsolutions.ca/premiere
>>> EMail : dmcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca
>>> Phone : 613-565-5056 x15
>>> Fax : 613-565-0925
>>>
>>> Jason Birch wrote:
>>>> Sponsors will be listed on the "Sponsors" page, and will 
>> be entitled 
>>>> to place an OSGeo Sponsor graphic on their website; these benefits 
>>>> will not be diluted.
>>>>
>>>> We talked about having an appropriate "sponsor" flag show 
>> up next to 
>>>> the listing?
>>>>
>>>> I think that it's important that we maintain a directory 
>> that doesn't
>>
>>>> require sponsorship, while making sponsorship of value to those 
>>>> entering their details into the directory.
>>>>
>>>> Consultants will initially enter their details into the list, and
>> then
>>>> consider sponsorship as a way of increasing their 
>> visibility within 
>>>> the list?
>>>>
>>>> Jason
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Dave McIlhagga [mailto:dmcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca]
>>>> Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 14:05
>>>> To: Tyler Mitchell
>>>> Cc: dev at webcommittee.osgeo.org; OSGeo-Board
>>>> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Board] Service Provider Directory
>>>>
>>>> Could this diminish value of some of the OSGeo 
>> Sponsorships? Visible 
>>>> association for companies with OSGeo was one of the 
>> benefits we had 
>>>> outlined for some of the packages -- so this would make 
>> that case a 
>>>> lot more difficult.
>>>>
>>>> Dave
>>>>
>>>> Tyler Mitchell wrote:
>>>>> On 26-Sep-06, at 11:21 AM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
>>>>>> Tyler, could you add a link to the entry form on the community
>> site?
>>>>>> I can't
>>>>>> seem to find it.
>>>>> Done, added it to the bottom of your wiki page.
>>>>>
>>>>>
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