[Board] Collaborating with OSSI

[Mark Lucas]

I've worked with John and the OSSI over the last several years as we  
have tried to move OSS into US government circles.  John and the OSSI  
have been instrumental in the progress that we have made - he is the  
driving force behind the recent change in policy for the Department  
of the Navy.  The end result was that open source software was  
allowed out of the closet, recognized for its importance to the Navy  
mission, and ultimately resulted in a dramatic policy shift.  They  
are currently helping with the Open Technology Development efforts in  
the Department of Defense.  His efforts are being sponsored by the  
NSA and the Naval Research Lab as they break new ground in certifying  
openSSL.

I think we have only begun to scratch the surface with geospatial  
software in the US Federal Government.  John and the OSSI would be a  
great partner to have in those efforts.  I'd highly recommend that we  
establish a working relationship between the OSGEO and OSSI.  I'll  
continue to focus on OTD and introducing OSGeo solutions into major  
government programs.  I'm already working with John and OSSI on  
several fronts and I think it would be to our mutual benefit to  
formally work together.

Mark

On Jul 17, 2007, at 4:59 PM, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:

> Hi, John Weathersby (OSSI) and I had a phone meeting with Vance  
> Saunders from Ball Aerospace about their open source release of an  
> image processing project.
>
> One outcome of that meeting was that John and I got to see how  
> OSGeo and OSSI might want to consider working together at some  
> level.  At this point he's invited us to sign up as a community  
> member and start talking more.  For those of your who remember,  
> John was at the Chicago OSGeo kick-off meeting and they share many  
> common objectives with us.
>
> Perhaps Mark can give us some more info about OSSI and confirm the  
> value for us to enrole.  He isn't so much interested in funds or  
> reciprocal form of membership in OSGeo (I told him it doesn't  
> exist) but is most interested in working together at some (yet to  
> be determined) strategic level.
>
> Tyler
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: John Weathersby <jmw at oss-institute.org>
>> Date: July 5, 2007 9:04:14 AM PDT (CA)
>> To: "Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)" <tmitchell at osgeo.org>
>> Cc: "Mark Lucas (home)" <mlucas17 at mac.com>
>> Subject: Re: Collaborating
>>
>> Thursday, 5 July, 2007
>>
>> Tyler,
>>
>> It was a pleasure speaking with you this morning.  As mentioned, I  
>> think it would prove mutually beneficial for OSGEO and OSSI to  
>> exchange reciprocal memberships in order to promote collaboration  
>> and promotion of our collective missions and efforts.
>>
>> OSSI has a "Community (Associate) Membership" category designed  
>> for this type of arrangement.  It is available for other non- 
>> profit orgs and development community efforts.  There is no  
>> membership fee or hard obligation associated with this  
>> membership...it is designed to provide a venue for both parties to  
>> share information and project collaboration in a mutually  
>> beneficial manner.
>>
>> Here's a link to the Community Membership (Associate) page.
>>
>> We'd include OSGEO's logo and information on our site with links  
>> back to your site.  And we'd have a "diplomatic channel" between  
>> the two orgs to work on projects like the Ball/Opticks effort.  We  
>> can also cross promote other services or joint memberships down  
>> the road, if both parties are interested, but that is not our  
>> primary interest or concern.
>>
>> What I would like to do, though, is to be able to promote your  
>> journal you mentioned and other projects you guys are involved  
>> with.  The more positive open source projects that we can point  
>> to, the better for everyone.
>>
>> Lucas can attest to the fact that we are not provincial and are  
>> not interested in horning in on other people's turf...our mission  
>> is to tell the story to anyone that will listen (and to those who  
>> don't listen, as well).  That requires good partners who are doing  
>> other good projects.
>>
>> Please share this info with your board and let me know if we can  
>> establish a mutually-beneficial membership exchange...and then let  
>> me know.  Regardless of the outcome I look forward to  working  
>> with you on the Ball project.
>>
>> Regards,
>> jmw
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