[Board] A possible view of the world

[Mark Lucas]

+1, well said Frank…


On Nov 13, 2011, at 5:32 PM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:

> On 11-11-13 01:45 PM, Daniel Morissette wrote:
>> On 11-11-11 05:12 PM, Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
>>>> 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.
>>> 
>>> This one has me conflicted:
>>> 
>>> As an board member, I'm hesitant to put OSGeo International resources
>>> directly into the US defense sector because I recognize some of our non-US
>>> members may be morally/politically opposed to such a move. (Does anyone else
>>> share this concern, or is it just me?)
>>> 
>> 
>> I share this concern, and believe that defense stuff would fit better in a
>> local chapter.
>> 
> 
> Folks,
> 
> To be clear I'm not suggesting we pour resources into such an effort just
> in order to make the US military and intelligence community more efficient.
> The goal is to engage them in open source geospatial so they will support
> projects and the organization as a whole pushing our mission forward.
> 
> Our holding a conference in Beijing will be primarily in partnership
> with government organizations there.  But we did not did not avoid holding
> our conference there just because some people have concerns about the
> behavior of the government there.  Instead, we proceeded in part based on
> the assumption that promoting open source geospatial within the government
> would lead to increased contributions to, and use of our projects over time.
> 
> On account of our being based in the USA there will be some countries it
> is hard for us to deal directly with (ie. Cuba, Syria, Iran) but where that
> is the not the case, I would *hope* that we would not let concerns not
> directly related to our primary mission interfere with our activities
> anywhere in the world.
> 
> All that said, if it is going to be terribly divisive I suppose it would
> be better to approach the American opportunity in different ways.  I would,
> however, be disappointed.
> 
> Best regards,
> -- 
> ---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
> I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
> light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/warmerda
> and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Software Developer
> 
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