[Board] Sponsorship funding and value for money

[Paul Ramsey]

Excuse snipping, please read parent for full details!

On 16-Dec-07, at 10:13 AM, Jo Walsh wrote:

>  Are we investing our money well now?

Possibly not. Given our current sponsorship model ("benign halo") the  
best place to invest our money (which is to say, our ED's time, given  
the general shape of our expenditures) would be in increasing the  
profile of OSGeo in places that might not know anything about geo at  
all, so that the "halo" is larger.  Again, following the example of  
the OGC makes sense... they are very good at placing articles in all  
kinds of places, pushing their brand out into as many media  
opportunities as they can.  A lot can be done by writing interesting  
articles and getting them into media -- media like free content, and  
we like to get our content published, so it's a match made in heaven.

> Well, I know that the expand-or-contract debate has been a constant
> thread through OSGeo's history, and I don't want to see simply yet
> another iteration of it now. But i see the sponsor-security conundrum
> above as likely to limit options and force decisions in a year. I want
> us to work with Tyler to find ways in which his ED work can show more
> measurable public impact and return on investment.

Here's some interesting info:

http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/releasedetail.cfm? 
ReleaseID=281676

And some depressing info:

http://www.apache.org/foundation/thanks.html

Even the best possible realization of the minimalist vision, by the  
largest minimalist practitioner, is pretty small, and tightly tied to  
companies "doing the right thing" for very abstract, non-measurable  
reasons.

By contrast, here's a serious pay-to-play foundation:

http://www.eclipse.org/membership/showMembersWithTag.php?TagID=strategic

Raison d'etre, raison d'etre... only the answer to that question will  
provide our direction.

P.

> This has been an awkward email to write, but I hope you will  
> understand.
>

Thanks Jo.

P