[Board] Commercialize OSGeo?

[Mark Lucas]

I think we all are probably in agreement that we don't want commercial  
control of OSGeo.  I think that it is probably necessary that we have  
broad commercial support if we really intend to put these technologies  
into play.  As you have said before, the next challenge is how to make  
a living promoting and supporting open source technologies.  We  
certainly don't want to be seen as 'anti-commercial'.

Mark


On Jun 1, 2008, at 7:16 AM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:

> 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
>
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