[Board] A possible view of the world

[Tyler Mitchell]

Hi Michael,

Aside from the last two points in the email from funding/sponsorship - how do you see this as different
than what OSGeo already is?  Except of course "chapters" don't make decisions - instead individual
members do.

Curious,
Tyler

On 2011-11-11, at 10:21 AM, Michael P. Gerlek wrote:

> Although I have significant questions about the NA chapter idea, I think that the path being suggested leads to some good ideas that can be made to work.
> 
> (please consider the following as just rough ideas, still being thought out and welcome for discussion)
> 
> I am thinking "OSGeo" could become "OSGeo International", defined as a loose Federation of OSGeo Chapters.  Those chapters may take on several different forms:
> 
>  - local (like CUGOS here in Seattle) - a small, local, in-person community
>  - large-territorial (US+Canada) - largely dedicated to hosting an annual North American conference
>  - language (Francophone) - for supporting translations, culture-specific issues, etc
>  - Educational - for supporting academic curricula, getting open source into GIS courses, etc
>  - "Mission-specific" (e.g. US DoD or UK Govt) - for working with specific govt sector
>  - Humanitarian - worldwide, for working with HOT, OSM, etc
> 
> You get the idea.  (In fact, the development projects could be considered Chapters, too -- like a "MapServer Chapter" -- but I'd not take things that far)
> 
> In such a world, OSGeo I11N would become this:
> 
> - take responsibility for the "main" mission/charter and own the "logo"/"brand"
> - a light-touch oversight group, helping to coordinate the chapters and their interactions, as well as picking up slack where there is not an existing chapter to fill a need
> - provide centralized place for main website, source control hosting, etc
> - annual FOGG4S international conference (which may be delegated out to an LOC or a specific regional chapter)
> 
> Funding and sponsorship opportunities would devolve down to the chapters aligned with the specific funder/sponsor mission and objectives.
> 
> A percentage of the proceeds from each of the chapters would return to the OSGeo parent organization, to support hosting services, etc. (only if the chapter's proceeds are greater than a certain amount).
> 
> Comments?
> 
> -mpg
> 
> 
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