[Board] Collaborating with OSSI

[Frank Warmerdam]

Mark Lucas wrote:
> 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.

Tyler / Mark,

I think cooperation with OSSI would be a fantastic idea.  I think the
"OTD - Realizing the Vision" conference is March is a perfect example
of the sort of efforts we can cooperate on.

I would also like to see some sort of official liason mechanism we could
form with other organizations.  As Dave mentions, OGC and OSSI are
organization we might want to form such relationships with.

One mechanism I can imagine that might help this is an "advisory board".
This would, at minimum, be a mailing list including the formal board,
interested OSGeo members, and outside folks from partner organizations
or who can bring specific kinds of advice to us.  So for instance, we
might solicit John Weathersby to join, or failing that at least to have
Mark there speaking on behalf of OSSI (of which I see he is a director!)
That might be a good place to recruit Raj to, speaking on behalf of OGC.
Perhaps someone from the Open Source legal organizations Chris has
spoken of (name forgotten).

I see that OSSI has a "OSS Comunity Associate Membership" category open
to open source community organizations.  I would like to see us join
up for that, as a way of showing our support for OSSI goals.

BTW, I've signed up on the OSSI web site, but I don't see any OSSI mailing
lists I can join.  Mark, is there one you would suggest for folks like
me wanting to keep a general eye on what is going on at OSSI?  Roughly
like announce at lists.osgeo.org perhaps?

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org