[Board] New MOUs proposed...

[Suchith Anand]

Hi all,

Through  OSGeo-ICA MoU, our vision is to jointly work to build up the profile of Open Source GIS in universities worldwide by helping share expertise for helping establish dedicated Open Source GIS Research and teaching facilities, make use of E-learning platforms (as the ones we developed for E-learning for Open Geospatial Community ELO-Geo) for Open Source GIS teaching, to establish framework for publications for the academic track of FOSS4G conferences (for research and academic staff having publications in peer-reviewed journals is key output) etc. 

Though there are no financial commitments on part of OSGeo or ICA for this, the aim is to use of network of members both in ICA and OSGeo who have interest in this vision to give momentum for this action plan.

As i mentioned in my mail on Aug 4th, in my humble opinion having dedicated Open Source GIS facilities in universities worldwide is a key step in helping strengthen the educational agenda for Open Source GIS both in research and teaching. Currently even with the great progress made in open source GIS  the sad fact is that many universities still use proprietary software for GIS teaching and research. One year back when we started  OSGL at Nottingham, our aim was to build up the momentum of Open Source GIS in the UK, now we are pleased that other universities like University of Girona, Spain are following this and our hope is that in future many more universities join in helping building up network effect for Open Source GIS in education. 

Joining forces with the International Cartographic Association (ICA) is an good for this vision as they have an excellent international network http://icaci.org/national-members  with strong research focus  and also part of various global initiatives like the United Nations Programme on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM) http://ggim.un.org/partners.html  etc
 
Best wishes,

Suchith




-----Original Message-----
From: board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Michael P. Gerlek
Sent: 06 September 2011 03:10
To: 'Tyler Mitchell'; 'OSGeo-Board List'
Subject: RE: [Board] New MOUs proposed...

The MOUs predate me being a board member, so please view my following
comments as coming from way out in the uninformed peanut gallery:

What do these MOUs actually mean to OSGeo? 

I'm familiar with agreements/statements between two organizations that say
"we're both in favor of X, and we'll work together to make X happen".  Often
these sorts of agreements have no deliverables behind them, they are just
statements of principles aimed at making the organizations be friends.
That's good and needed, sometimes.  Is that what these MOU are intended to
do?

I see statements like "mutual promotion of...", "formation of the...",
"develop collaboration opportunities for...", and "to provide expertise and
support for...", and so I have to wonder if instead the MOUs represent
specific tasks that have been scoped out, e.g. with people on board to lead
them and funding commensurate to meet the objectives?  Or is the MOU
intended to be read as saying these are goals that we'd like to mutually
achieve, but for which we have no hard plans as yet?

To be blunt, I guess I'm asking what OSGeo resources are potentially going
to be committed by these agreements, if any?

-mpg



> -----Original Message-----
> From: board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:board-
> bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Tyler Mitchell
> Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2011 4:03 PM
> To: OSGeo-Board List
> Subject: [Board] New MOUs proposed...
> 
> As briefly discussed at the meeting earlier, we have two new memorandum
> of understanding agreements drafted and ready for your review, questions
> and, hopefully, your approval.  We've discussed them briefly over past two
> month board meetings.
> 
> 1. ICA: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/MOU_ICA - Agreement to work with
> International Cartographic Association.  Much is already happening by its
> members who also happen to be OSGeo members.  So I don't anticipate
> much work on OSGeo's end to support this agreement.
> 
> 2. SIGTE: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/MOU_SIGTE - One request was to pass
> academic MOUs through the OSGeo education committee for feedback, that
> has been done, resulting in no changes for the MOU.  SIGTE is a leader in
> running various events and open source geo training, so this is a strong
> connection to that community and another step toward a broader global
> education network for OSGeo.
> 
> Any questions?  If not, I'm looking for a motion to adopt these so I can
sign
> them off.  The coordinators are excited about having this connection.
> 
> Thanks,
> Tyler
> 
> p.s. I'm still working on minutes from the board meeting today, but you
can
> see some of the discussion http://logs.qgis.org/osgeo/%23osgeo.2011-09-
> 01.log - some of which relates to the
> above._______________________________________________
> Board mailing list
> Board at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board

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