[Board] Commercialize OSGeo?

[Frank Warmerdam]

Arnulf Christl (OSGeo) wrote:
> Board,
> I have stated that I am against commercializing OSGeo. Paul hinted in the
> other direction. Are there any more opinions at this level of the
> organization?
> 
> As far as I went into detail there is no precedence for a "Teach-in" of
> the proposed format by other organizations like Apache, Mozilla,
> OpenOffice.org or PostgreSQL. If there are I am very interested in getting
> more information. I am sure that we are not the first to have this kind of
> discussion.

Arnulf,

I believe that Apache conferences are run loosely on a similar model.
That is, a conference organizer bids to put on ApacheCon, promising some
specific amount of money to the organization.  They (the organizer) then
operates commercially to maximize their profit on the event.  But I don't
know what sorts of constraints they operate within with regard to fee
levels etc.

I can't easily say whether I'm for or against commercializing as that
seems like a broad area.  Generally speaking I'm not keen on OSGeo
attempting to provide commercial services since I'm not convinced we
have the capacity to execute well, and more importantly I think it
impinges on the realm of the existing commercial FOSS4G service providers,
potentially putting us at odds with a key constituency of ours.

I'm not necessarily against partnering with commercial partners if we
can provide branding, promotion or other services.  Some care would need to
be taken to keep the option open to any qualifying organization so we
aren't playing favorites in an arbitrary fashion.

Ultimately I guess my view is more pragmatic than clear.  I'm
willing for OSGeo to get involved "commercial activities" if I am
convinced it advances the goals of the foundation.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
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