[Board] Fwd: FOSS4G Proceedings Problem

[Peter Batty]

Hi all,

I'm not sure whether to send this to the board or the conference committee,
but since it involves Tyler's role I thought I'd start here. It was quite a
big deal for the academic community that we committed to publishing papers
from the academic track at FOSS4G this year. In previous years we received
some criticism that this didn't happen, as it's important for academics to
get work formally published. One element of this was publishing papers in
the OSGeo Journal.

You can see more detail in the discussion below from Rafael (who ran the
academic track) and Tyler. The bottom line is that Tyler was going to
organize this but won't have time before he leaves. He is reluctant to ask
for money from OSGeo to do this, but I would hate to see us back down on the
commitment we made to publish these papers, and don't see it happening
unless we engage Tyler to do this (if anyone has any other ideas please let
me know). I am sure I can arrange something with Tyler with minimal impact
on the overall FOSS4G proceeds (not sure the board needs to be involved in
the details, but happy for them to be if they would like to).

I thought I'd ask if anyone has any comments, in favor of or against
engaging Tyler to do this, or alternative ideas, then I'll make a motion (if
I need to).

Cheers,
    Peter.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Moreno, Rafael <Rafael.Moreno at ucdenver.edu>
Date: Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 5:50 PM
Subject: RE: FOSS4G Proceedings Problem
To: "Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)" <tmitchell at osgeo.org>, Peter Batty <
peter at ebatty.com>


Tyler, Peter,

As I told Tyler, I don't understand the foundation's decision to disappear
Tyler's position and hence the OSGeo Journal. In my opinion this will set
back the progress of FOSS in gaining respect in the IT world (not only in
academia).

I have not been able to find a professor or student willing to take some
part of the work of editing the journal.

Could we argue with the foundation that there was a previous commitment to
publish the selected papers and hence Tyler needs to be retained until this
commitment is fulfilled?

I have asked Tyler for whom to contact to send a communication expressing
our disagreement and concern about the move they just took.


John Wilson from Transactions in GIS has mentioned that if more than 11
papers are considered outstanding we could see if the journal can fit them
in the future. No promises.

Rafael





_____________________________________
Rafael Moreno, Ph.D.
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
University of Colorado Denver
North Classroom 3524
Campus Box 172 P.O. Box 173364
Denver, CO 80217-3364
Phone: 303-352-3762
Fax: 303-556-6197


-----Original Message-----
From: Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) [mailto:tmitchell at osgeo.org]
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 1:54 PM
To: Peter Batty
Cc: Moreno, Rafael
Subject: FOSS4G Proceedings Problem

Hi Peter,
I've been back and forth a bit with Rafael on this topic and thought I'd
pull
you in before I make my final recommendation.

As you know, the OSGeo Journal team, and myself in particular, committed to
publishing a bunch of papers in a special FOSS4G 2011 edition of the
Journal.
I was going to play a big part in pulling all that together and am not sure
the rest of the volunteer team will really be able to do it due to their own
personal time constraints.  I certainly can't guarantee how the process
would
run without me involved - others may rise to the occassion but I haven't
seen
any sign of that yet.

Rafael needs to know what to do and I put out a few ideas, but basically we
need to decide whether to cancel this effort and have Rafael try to find
another
place to publish them.  Perhaps a follow up edition of Transactions in GIS
would be possible?

Or you might want to try to still get them out through the Journal somehow.
You could hire someone to help go through the process, but not sure if there
is value in that.  I know some contractors that are available and pretty
good.
Likewise, I might also be available for hire to usher it through - but I
hesitate to suggest anything that requests OSGeo money for my work now, so
am
not 100% sure I'd even take the offer if it was made.

Or a bit of a wilder idea, not sure I have stamina for this or not, but at
this point the Journal hasn't tried to raise any funding.  Perhaps we could
approach FOSS4G sponsors to advertise in this Journal edition and that
funding
could be used in whatever way you wish to get it done.  Seems like a lot of
work with no guarantee though.

While the Journal has been one of my biggest personal projects, it was made
clear to me over the past couple years that it should not be a priority.
 This
is disappointing because outreach to academia was at the very top of my list
of strategic target areas for 2011/2012.  That's to say, I will lament its
demise but if there is still need/value I will resurrect it somehow
(probably
privately) once the dust settles at my end.  It's becoming clear to me that
I
cannot afford the time on it during these final few weeks on the payroll.

Hope that makes sense, would love your thoughts.

Tyler
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/attachments/20111018/8bb595ef/attachment.htm>