[Board] Status update...

Wed Oct 17 05:23:54 PDT 2007

Hi Tyler,
thanks for the report, this is *exactly* what I was expecting, it is focused, comprehensive and gives a good overview much better than previous tries. If anybody feels that it still needs some tuning to suit our needs please say, from my point of view this is very helfpful. 

Best regards, 
Arnulf. 

PS:
I just scanned the blog, it has loads of valuable information. Do you have statistics how many times the page is read - or at least accessed? Maybe it should be marketed better because it gives a good insight to what we do and how we do things.

Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> Here are a few notes for you from the last week or two.
> 
> Blog
> ---------
> For those of you who didn't know, I do my OSGeo-related blogging at:
> http://www.osgeo.org/tyler
> I posted a FOSS4G blog summary there a couple weeks ago.  You may find 
> some other statistics on that page interesting as well.
> 
> Journal
> ---------
> The next edition (vol 3) of the Journal is going to be interesting.  It 
> will be dedicated to publishing proceedings from FOSS4G.  We have 14 
> articles from a wide range of authors.  We are in the process of 
> collecting the articles and editing them.
> 
> There are several requesting peer review as well, so we are looking at 
> whether it is going to be feasible this round or not.
> 
> We also starting to move the publication of the journal onto a journal 
> management system, which will help with a bunch of things.  In 
> particular it can manage the peer review and editorial processes but 
> also push out indexing metadata to a collective of other journal 
> metadata search engines.
> 
> All this at the same time that articles for vol 4 are starting to come 
> in.  It's pretty impressive to see the content and interest from the 
> broader community.
> 
> Marketing
> -------------
> The Visibility Committee is officially gone, I've removed the list and 
> ported the archives over into the new "Marketing" list.  We had our 
> first meeting last week and have been doing a lot of working around the 
> wiki organisation and generally regrouping with a bit more of a focus.  
> Jeroen has joined the committee and is looking into design help options 
> for getting our next generation of brochures and flyers made up.
> 
> I have also ordered some more OSGeo t-shirts and hats.  It was agreed at 
> the Marketing meeting that it would be good to make sure our sponsors 
> each have some as a gift.  When we get brochures and other handouts 
> redone, there will be a nice little package we can give them.
> 
> Also at our meeting there was the timeless debate about how to best help 
> support local chapters.  Francophone chapter was asking for a donation 
> to help fund a booth at the GeoTunis event.  Spanish chapter and gvSIG 
> project was asking to have OSGeo listed as a host/supporter of their 
> upcoming (Nov 14th) gvSIG Days event.  Overall, those present at the 
> meeting (which were only a couple of us) hoped we could focus on provide 
> printed material and brochures, rather than providing funding for booth 
> space and shows.  We'll continue the debate in the future as we discuss 
> budgets.
> 
> Website
> -----------
> The www.osgeo.org site has had some recent troubles, mainly around the 
> search indexing.  I've been helping to fix some of the bugs that have 
> crept in.  I will be looking within and beyond WebCom and SAC to try to 
> find more Drupal support help to clear up some of the issues that remain 
> and provide a bit more support so I'm less of a bottleneck.
> A few of the other apps we've been trying out including the Open 
> Conference System for providing an event management framework and Moodle 
> courseware for the education committee.  The education committee is 
> evaluating and likely going to select Moodle as its platform of choice.  
> Several curriculum contributors already use it.
> 
> Financials
> --------------
> Our new finance committee is about to get off the ground.  I've spent 
> some time last week balancing/reconciling our accounting software with 
> the last couple months of transactions.  I will be meeting with Ken to 
> review our account categories and with Dave and others on the committee 
> to generally approve a format and frequency for reporting.  We'll also 
> work to help take over tasks that have been on Laura's plate.
> 
> 501c3
> US Charity Status
> ----------
> I've been discussing our possibilities with a consulting lawyer who has 
> done several incorporations of nonprofits - including the background 
> work and filing of the documents with the state and the federal gov't 
> for around $1000.  More on this as we discuss costs and requirements, 
> but I'm glad to have the prospect of working with someone who's done it 
> before.
> 
> Local Chapters
> --------------------
> It feels like spring, with all these new local chapter initiatives 
> popping out of the ground.  Ottawa started discussing some ideas of 
> helping start a Canada chapter.  Then out of the blue a British Columbia 
> provincial effort popped up.  Fortunately I have a layover in Vancouver 
> on the day of the first BC chapter meeting, so I'll be able to attend.  
> A Romania and California chapter also are starting to organise.  The 
> Francophone and Spanish chapters are really moving now too - with lots 
> of discussion for planning for events (GeoTunis and gvSIG Days).
> 
> Upcoming Events
> ----------------------
> A few of us (Markus, Lorenzo, Geoff Zeiss and I) will be heading to 
> Japan to participate in an open source event in Osaka - Venka has been 
> helping organise this event Nov 9-10th.  After this, there is a 
> follow-up event held in Tokyo for those who could not attend Osaka.  I 
> will be travelling to both of these and hope to meet more of our Japan 
> Local Chapter delegates and users while sharing more about OSGeo.
> 
> gvSIG days comes up on Nov 14th in Valencia, Spain.  I believe Jeroen 
> and Lorenzo will be attending (others?) as well as the many local 
> chapter folks.  Around the same time, Géo-Tunis will be running in 
> Tunisia.  Many of the companies, i.e. Camptocamp and other individuals 
> from Francophone Chapter will be attending.    I won't able to attend 
> either gvSIG or Géo-Tunis.
> 
> A couple other events that I'm watching or thinking about - if you are 
> attending or interested, please let me know:
> * The end of Nov. is when Autodesk's big annual conference/training/expo 
> is held.
> * http://picisoc.org/tiki-index.php?page=PacGISRS2007Registration
> * http://www.events.cto.int/opensource07
> * http://www.afei.org/brochure/8a03/index.cfm
> 
> 2008
> * http://www.grassmeeting2008.unipg.it/
> * http://www.sigte.udg.es/jornadassiglibre/
> * 
> http://www.fossgis.de/wiki/index.php/Main_Page_______________________________________________ 
> 
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