[Board] New MOUs proposed...

Tue Sep 6 09:40:52 PDT 2011

All of the things you say are great and fit our mission, I don't think
there's much controversy there...  My only concern was what these agreements
would obligate OSGeo to do, and now that you've said there are no financial
commitments, I'm happy.

Thanks -

-mpg

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Suchith Anand [mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2011 7:32 AM
> To: mpg at flaxen.com; 'Tyler Mitchell'; 'OSGeo-Board List'
> Subject: RE: [Board] New MOUs proposed...
> 
> 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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