[Board] Re: F2F meeting

Sat Nov 7 01:43:15 PST 2009

Good point Jeroen!

As a result of this discussion, I'm using my contacts to try to get 
support from national sources and then international agencies. My 
feeling is that when it comes to the the international agencies (UN 
family for example) it is in the first place just a question of raising 
the awareness. By support I mean OSGeo sponsorship and travel grants for 
people from low-income countries to come to FOSS4G.

In general, it seems to me that the most natural idea is that the board 
should meet at the yearly FOSS4G. It should be kind of requirement of 
being in the board. If a board member can't arrange the travel funds him 
or herself then the foundation should help. In my case it is usually 
more a question of feeling the obligation, i.e., if there was an order 
from the president, I'd come ;)

Cheers,

Ari

Jeroen Ticheler kirjoitti:
> Hi Ravi,
> Good point, and one you will have to repeat often for it to be heard 
> and understood! Even while I lived many years in Africa and visited 
> many countries around the world I notice I tend to sometimes forget 
> about these differences. It indeed even calls for a specific 
> sponsoring component to OSGeo that is specifically targeted at 
> supporting people from low income countries. We should get our act 
> together and target agencies that would be willing to support this 
> directly. I will do so to a number where I have contacts if others 
> feel that is worthwhile. These funds could be used to support local 
> events, but I would also like to see them support travel to allow for 
> f2f meetings and such.
> Kind regards,
> Jeroen
>
> On Nov 7, 2009, at 7:49 AM, Ravi wrote:
>
>> F2F meeting
>> Costs: May not be for all but for some like me, even attending FOSS4G 
>> Sydney would have cost the equivalent of arranging a (free) 3-day 
>> workshop for 30 interested students/GIS teachers along with 
>> hospitality expenses and travel for resource-persons. The philosophy 
>> of OSGeo translating into priorities will make a local chapter spend 
>> their meager resources in organising awareness.
>>
>> Ravi Kumar
>>
>>
>>
>> --- On Fri, 6/11/09, Arnulf Christl (OSGeo) <arnulf at osgeo.org> wrote:
>>
>>> From: Arnulf Christl (OSGeo) <arnulf at osgeo.org>
>>> Subject: [Board] Re: F2F meeting
>>> To: board at lists.osgeo.org
>>> Date: Friday, 6 November, 2009, 8:11 PM
>>> Howard,
>>> thanks for making a clear statement to a constraint that we
>>> have. But I am
>>> inclined to say that we should then remove that constraint
>>> instead of not
>>> meeting. I also want to have my expenses paid for and I
>>> think this is
>>> something that OSGeo must be able to do in the future if it
>>> wants to
>>> continue to prosper and grow. Otherwise we can make it a
>>> requirement that
>>> future Directors must be capable and willing to afford a
>>> meeting on their
>>> own expense.
>>>
>>> I have started several attempts at getting together at
>>> least a list of
>>> potential sponsors and to then nudge some board members
>>> into actually
>>> contacting them and to report of their success but so far
>>> to no avail.
>>>
>>> Does anybody have a better suggestion at how to solve this
>>> problem? My
>>> guess is that nothing much will happen if we just sit
>>> around and wait.
>>> Another example: "Somebody" ought to get into contact with
>>> Autodesk and
>>> make sure that they stay at the 50k level. They would be
>>> paying 150k every
>>> year for their CollabNet environment if we would not have
>>> prepared a cosy
>>> nest for them. Or did I miss something along the way? Its
>>> just a deal and
>>> someone will have to dicker.
>>>
>>> It's just that I am not going to do it all on my own
>>> because I simply
>>> cannot, I am as busy as most of us. And probably I am not
>>> even very good
>>> at it (too blunt, impatient, etc... :-)
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Arnulf.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, November 6, 2009 13:51, Howard Butler wrote:
>>>>
>>>
>>>> On Nov 5, 2009, at 7:09 PM, Arnulf Christl (OSGeo)
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> I really mean to get all of us meet in one place
>>>>> for two days.
>>>>
>>>> I don't see how this is remotely possible given our
>>> budgetary
>>>> constraints.  There's no way I can afford footing
>>> a F2F board meeting out
>>>> of pocket right now, and OSGeo has never been in a
>>> position of being able
>>>> to support board member's travel to F2F meetings.
>>>>
>>>> We should see if we can procure reliable low-cost
>>> tele/video
>>>> conferencing before putting the squeeze on members to
>>> spend a day of travel
>>>> on each side of a two day F2F.  Our meeting
>>> situation (IRC + free skype)
>>>> is awful.
>>>>
>>>> Howard
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Arnulf Christl
>>> President OSGeo
>>> http://www.osgeo.org
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Board mailing list
>>> Board at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Prof. Ari Jolma
Environmental Management Information Technology
Teknillinen Korkeakoulu / Helsinki University of Technology
tel: +358 9 4511 address: POBox 5300, 02015 TKK, Finland
Email: ari.jolma at tkk.fi URL: http://geoinformatics.tkk.fi