[Board] a long story starting with SOAP and ending in Switzerland

[Jo Walsh]

On Tue, Jul 10, 2007 at 02:34:48PM -0400, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
>  o Work for JRC and other european initiatives should keep the IP held by
>    consulting/contracting organizations that implement the changes. 
>    Presumably European companies.

But what do we mean by "keep the IP"?
Project contributors sign a CLA assigning code copyright to OSGeo.
How can one "keep" contributions to open source software?

>  o If it is hard for OSGeo to speak on behalf of the european foss4g
>    community because it is too American, then I think an existing
>    european organization (perhaps a substantial OSGeo local chapter or
>    an affiliated group like GRASS GaV.  

Well, more than being about the OSGeo community in european countries, 
this is about the possibility of doing work with all the global projects,
in a european context, through whatever european business entity needed.

But yes, there are local groups and chapters which could perhaps help
form a 'consortium'. But then projects without local members may not
get such strong representation. 
 
>I think moving to Switzerland isn't
>    *really* solving anything, and I don't think we can support the
>    complexity involved in having formally incorporated OSGeo organizations
>    as shells in many places.   If we have to be somewhere, I think the USA
>    with 501(c)3 status is the most appropriate unless US law (patent, etc)
>    were to essentially drive us out.

But then we could have a Swiss bank account... 
I wonder if we may encounter backlash towards a US-based entity for
the Foundation in the future, though. I see this as a way of
solving potential future problems. Does anyone else think this at
least worth looking into, the question of internationalising the basis?

cheers,


jo
--