[Board] So what is the purpose of OSGeo?

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

On 29-May-08, at 10:41 AM, Arnulf Christl wrote:
>
>> It ends up sounding like the board could be out of touch with the
>> needs and interests of the community and its projects.
>>
> This may well be true. Is this a musing or a position? (I should  
> know so
> that i can decide whether being on the board makes good sense).

You should know I speak more in generalities than specifics :)  It's  
neither musing nor a personal position.  This is a hypothetical  
position that observers of the board could come to during this  
discussion.

It reminds me of a somewhat similar "problem" with branding early on  
in the Education Committee.  The author of a good curriculum came  
forward, looking to use OSGeo branding on the material, since it  
taught about some OSGeo projects.  The course material would be made  
available publicly (under CC license), but was primarily taught as  
part of a academic course you had to pay for.  It was a difficult  
issue for a young committee to deal with and I wouldn't be surprised  
if it left some people wondering what the point of such a committee  
was if it wasn't able or interested in supporting such projects.   
After all, the committee itself was not likely going to be writing  
its own curriculum from scratch - so this could have been an easy way  
to embrace something that exists, without any work.

Tyler