[Board] errata to Board topics

[Brian Hamlin]

misc points:

OSGeo at OSCon:

OSGeo has of course "presented at OSCon" previously.. I saw Aaron 
Racicot present at an early stage of OSGeo - it was great!  I  *meant* 
in the previous letter - presented at the "State of Open Source" 
session, where nearly 20 of the largest OSS orgs all line up in 7 
minute sessions, on camera.... OSGeo was in the lineup for the first 
time this year, I believe..

the second point is, I have been getting some feedback like "you are 
apparently trying to make OSGeo into a consulting company, and that 
sucks".. Well, no, thats not the intent actually, though I could see 
how things could be misconstrued that way...

If OSGeo believes some pieces of Open Geo Data were vital, what if 
OSGeo had the server capacity to host that, reliably.. to create some 
infrastructure for certain select niches.. or crucial common interest 
areas ?  Its not out of the realm of possibility...

What if OSGeo had more and varied events, not just one per year..
What if OSGeo had better educational materials, created cirriculum...
What if OSGeo could contribute at a Policy Level (ahem), to emerging 
issues, with substantive, researched and cogent white papers, like a 
think tank?
What if the speakers and guest lecturers efforts were strengthened?
What if publications were more developed?
and of course, how can core software development be even better 
supported?

None of these suggestions are meant to take anything away from the 
achievements of the past, and ongoing .. Of course most of those things 
are already happening, in some form or another. Personally I dont know 
all of the OSGeo activities.. thats good!  I am suggesting that there 
are additional routes to accomplishing these desirable goals...

I am also suggesting that there are ways to ethically, and within 
mission, earn revenue for the organization.. Every city around here has 
a small club like "Italian Club" or "Finnish Hall", etc.. these 
ethnically oriented groups, non-profits, came together in the past to 
make capacity, and necessarily had to bring in money to do so... They 
would hold a fair, or a concert, or a dance, or host a famous speaker, 
charge for it, and the revenue goes back into the organization...

Why now? Why OSGeo ?

I am keen on OSGeo as a fulcrum in a rapidly advancing corner of the 
technology universe, *and* as a strategically critical piece of how to 
grapple with some of the largest systems challenges facing mankind 
right now.. Planetwork.net, the 5th International Symposium on Digital 
Earth, the Geospatial Innovation Lab at Berkeley, these are places I 
have sought out and become involved with..

So I thank you for your patience.. I look forward to a robust 
discussion from the Board of OSGeo, when the time is right, on these 
possibilities for organizational development..

best regards from Berkeley, California

Brian Hamlin