[Board] A possible view of the world

[Frank Warmerdam]

On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 1:00 PM, Michael P. Gerlek <mpg at flaxen.com> wrote:
> Frank writes:
>> I would still like to return to a situation where we have staff
>> and financial resources that we can apply strategically to get
>> critical things done but even then that is just a small fraction of
>> what we are doing as a community.
>
> ...which leads to the open question, just what are those Critical Things?  I think that's one of the existential questions we're trying to get grips on these days.

Michael,

Yes, certainly.

Actually "critical things" might be not quite the right term,
but I do thing there are strategically important and actionable
things we could try and address.

1) Mark has convinced me that in the intelligence and military
world in the US we are currently in a moment of opportunity
where strategically applied resources would be very valuable.

2) I believe that packaged software suites like the LiveDVD,
OSGeo4W and Ubuntu GIS are very important and that we
should apply resources to them.  I personally feel that OSGeo4W
is the highest leverage one of these to apply ourselves to.

Well, I can think of lots of others but obviously things aren't
a priority unless you can keep the list smallish.  Some strategic
initiatives still really need a volunteer to lead them but in some
cases putting organizational resources behind such a volunteer
can make them much more effective.

I think promoting FOSS4G in post secondary education is
also very important, but for now I can't see any clear path
to accomplishing this beyond what volunteers are willing to
pursue.

I think helping launch new local user communities and
tie them back into the global community is strategic but
I don't have so many specific ideas that I am confident
of on how to accomplish that.

Best regards,
-- 
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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    | Geospatial Software Developer