[Board] 2012 FOSS4G Decision

[Ari Jolma]

On 09/14/2011 08:51 AM, Michael Gerlek wrote:
> I might have missed it, did Peter's slide show anyone from China here in Denver?

According to those slides, there are none from China.

Ari

> .mpg
>
> On Sep 14, 2011, at 8:02 AM, "Michael P. Gerlek"<mpg at flaxen.com>  wrote:
>
>> I thought about the culture/lang/lack-of-experience issue too... I think
>> Beijing will be a *very* different conference than what we're used to, and
>> will likely be smaller... but I really like the idea of trying to "crack
>> open" the Chinese market.  I was really impressed by the heavy-hitters they
>> lined up to welcome their new chapter some years ago, so I think the
>> organizers can get the formal support they'll need... but yeah, this won't
>> make OSGeo the $ that Denver will.
>>
>> I'm +0 on hiring out Jeff for this.  It's a great idea, actually, but I'd
>> need to think about how it would work in practice.
>>
>> -mpg
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org]
>> On Behalf Of Seven (aka Arnulf)
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 7:42 AM
>> To: board at lists.osgeo.org
>> Subject: Re: [Board] 2012 FOSS4G Decision
>>
>> On 09/12/2011 11:13 AM, Jeff McKenna wrote:
>>> Board,
>>>
>>> We (the OSGeo Conference Committee) finally has a strong decision on
>>> the
>>> 2012 FOSS4G host: Beijing. The final vote was 9 to 5 for Beijing.
>>>
>>> (background: the initial vote was a tie, 7-7, and we did not have a
>>> tie-breaker established, so we did a re-vote over a week)
>>>
>>> As quickly as possible I would like approval from the Board on this
>>> decision.  There is a 10 minute slot in the final plenary on Friday
>>> (at FOSS4G Denver) to announce/invite everyone to 2012.
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>> -jeff
>> Board,
>> it took me long to take this hard decision but my vote on Beijing as
>> conference venue for 2012 is -1. This is not lack of trust in the Beijing
>> team but instead - lack of trust in OSGeo and the board and most of all lack
>> of trust in myself (because I seem to not be doing a good job as president).
>> The board has a history of not following through with decisions which is why
>> I feel I have to take this route.
>>
>> Rationale for veto:
>> Every single FOSS4G so far has been in "our" cultural context, China is very
>> different to what we are used to. This single reason alone is responsible
>> for many broken businesses and there is not reason why we should be an
>> exception. FOSS4G is currently our single only source of revenue.
>>
>> Lausanne had Claude as a chair, even then a well versed Open Source leader.
>> Victoria with Paul was beyond doubt the first event of the new large scale
>> FOSS4G we now see happen every year. South Africa was a big risk - but
>> worked out great in the end - even if it took more than a year after the
>> conference until the cash was wired to the OSGeo account (which we could not
>> afford in our current situation). But even in Cape Town the core language
>> was English and communication was straight forward.
>>
>> Sydney was again beyond doubt from an organizing perspective with Cameron in
>> the lead - but as it was half way round the nice, blue side of the world we
>> did have less attendees than we would have had elsewhere.
>>
>> Barcelona was the first time that the Local chaps spoke a different language
>> and I can assure you it was a massive pain until we even got the contracts
>> done - and this even although we had Lorenzo, a highly capable local fluent
>> in Eglish, Spanish, Catalan and Italian - and me backing things up who also
>> speaks Spanish. None of you took much notice of this constant back channel
>> issue about language.
>>
>> Now in Denver it is a home rum - and looks like it will be the greatest
>> FOSS4G ever.
>>
>> Now on to Bejing: We have no representative here as we did with Lorenzo in
>> Barcelona, Gavin and Peter Batty in Victoria - the first missing link. The
>> official Chinese Local Chapter is very much invisible to me and has no
>> record of experience with FOSS4G events as far as I can tell.
>> Again - this is not to criticize the Beijing offer or the people involved -
>> it may well be my massive ignorance only. So please do not feel offended.
>>
>> Next thing is that 70% and more revenue generated by FOSS4G conferences is
>> generated within the local hosting country. I am simply anxious that we will
>> not be able to generate enough monetary interest in China to pay our bills.
>> Additionally Beijing is far off so that - just like in Australia - many of
>> the regular attendees may well not be able to come at all.
>>
>> Solution to resolve veto:
>> It is a very simple proposal: Allocate 20k US$ budget to fund our conference
>> chair Jeff McKenna to help organize the Beijing FOSSG conference. With him
>> in the backbone of the conference I feel safe to go ahead with a +1 for
>> FOSS4G 2012 in Beijing. Ideally this money comes right back with the
>> conference - but we will have to back it up as a foundation with a vote -
>> now!
>>
>> Jeff,
>> I know that you will not be able to support FOSS4G in Beijing for free
>> without hurting your business, so please do not step up and say anything at
>> all - you are out and should probably abstain from saying anything until we
>> have taken this decision (unless you do not accept this offer at all).
>>
>>
>> Board,
>> one reason why I take this painful route is because I can still not believe
>> that we were too miserly to back up 12k for a code sprint.
>> FOSS4G means we will be backing up several 100k - and with all of the above
>> said in mind the risk we take is a lot higher than we would have done with
>> that comparatively small sprint.
>>
>>
>> Motion:
>> Arnulf Christl motions to allocate 20k funding for the conference chair to
>> co-organize FOSS4G 2012 in Beijing, to be paid within the next year to the
>> account of Jeff McKenna.
>>
>>
>> Please let us have a discussion here - if necessary, then we need someone to
>> second this motion and votes.
>>
>>
>> Please refrain from physically hurting me until I am done with my keynote,
>> after that feel free to do whatever you deem appropriate.
>>
>> :-)
>>
>> Thank you for you consideration,
>> Arnulf
>>
>> --
>> Exploring Space, Time and Mind
>> http://arnulf.us
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