[Board] Aug 9th Meeting - My Thoughts

[Frank Warmerdam]

Folks,

I'm afraid I can't attend the board meeting Thursday as I will be kayaking
on the SF Bay in the interest of team building!

But I did want to stick a bit of an oar in with regard to some of the
agenda items even if I can't vote.

1) Finances - I'm comfortable with Daniel's revised budget for the year
though I don't consider it critical to revise the budget during the year.
I do appreciate the report, and I do think we ought to be formally reviewing
and adopting quarterly financial reports.

2) I can't speak to the funding request for what I assume is LatinOS 2012
since I haven't seen the proposal.

3) Eclipse - I very much hope that we will take a positive, constructive
position with regard to the spatial effort at Eclipse.  I'm not yet clear
that there is much concrete action that we need to take.  Assuming it is
successful, we might even learn some things about how to meet the needs
of businesses from them.

4) I am in support of recognizing the PDX OSGeo chapter. I had to look up
PDX to see what airport code it was!

5) I have not taken further action on the voting procedure question as
someone (I believe Arnulf?) suggested it be broadened.  I had originally
just intended to officially confirm the decision made a couple years ago.

6) GeoTools - I strongly support the board recognising that the GeoTools
contributor agreement grants contributors very broad permission to do what
they want with their code contribution including relicensing it.

I do not believe any other relicensing of the GeoTools code base should
take place at this time without a firm recommendation from the GeoTools PSC.

7) I do not see any action needed on the impartiality point.  Note that the
GeoTools PSC is naturally a party to every decision it judges - this issue
isn't special in that regard.  I believe the board should only interfere in
projects governance when it becomes clear that they have become seriously
non-functional.  I see no sign of this with GeoTools.

8) I didn't see a detailed proposal for FOSS4G 2013 NA but I am
supportive of us fulfilling a similar role for it that we play for
the main FOSS4G conference under reasonably similar terms which includes
us being presented with a proposed budget and appointing a board liason.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://home.gdal.org/warmerda
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Software Developer