[Board] Resurrecting the Eclipse discussion

[Seven (aka Arnulf)]

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Mark,
this is a good summary, thanks.

In my understanding we already decided to go ahead with continue
talking to the Eclipse Foundation. But we need a primary contact on
our side who leads this effort and maybe Michael is frustrated enough
to not want to take the lead here (Michael, can you chime in please?).

My proposal was to ask Eclipse to become a strategic sponsor - and
work out together with them what this will exactly "buy" them. I would
be happy to explore this together with someone from Eclipse but as I
am in Europe and most of the rest of the board is in Northern Americas
it might make more sense to have someone else take this on. Ideas?

Best regards,
Arnulf


On 11.06.2012 15:58, Mark Lucas wrote:
> OSGeo future and Eclipse?
> 
> Sorry I haven't gotten back to this earlier.
> 
> I hope this won't be misinterpreted so let me emphasize a couple of
> points:
> 
> I believe the OSGeo is the global leader in open source geospatial 
> development We have the top projects as members, we have
> infrastructure that supports development, we host great
> international, regional and local conferences. I am also very
> impressed with the caliber of the committees and board members
> 
> I would like to see us preserve all of that an enhance it.
> 
> There is always room for improvement and areas of concern, maybe
> some of those could be addressed through a relationship with
> another entity - such as Eclipse.
> 
> 1) We have no staff 2) Our president is stepping down - who is the
> face of OSGeo? 3) We spend much more time discussing how we spend
> the little money we have then how we raise more funding 4) There is
> not any real focus on open source business models 5) Many of the ex
> Directors, open source geospatial companies,  and key contributors
> are focusing on other avenues (DM Solutions, OpenGeo, Autodesk,
> RadiantBlue, ESRI, Oracle just off the top of my head). 6) I'm
> worried how we sustain and grow the organization
> 
> Please don't take this as a doom and gloom forecast.  We have
> success and inertia behind us, as the board we have the obligation
> to guide the organization.  Now is the time to think about the way
> ahead.  I'm all for exploring a relationship with Eclipse if we
> believe it preserves our strengths and helps to address my
> concerns.
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Jun 11, 2012, at 9:12 AM, Jo Cook wrote:
> 
>> Hi All,
>> 
>> I have been chatting to someone who it turns out is peripherally 
>> involved in the Eclipse LWG and is going to be in on a conference
>> call with them on Thursday. He has a small open source GIS
>> project, and they have offered to put it under their banner. He
>> is ambivalent, but I've asked him for some more background on
>> what they offer, and any process that projects would need to go
>> through. I'm hoping that this will fill in some of the gaps that
>> those of us (me in particular) had about what Eclipse are
>> offering, so that we can kick-start the discussion again-
>> hopefully a bit more positively this time with the additional
>> background.
>> 
>> I hope that's useful, and that people feel the discussion is
>> worth kick-starting- I certainly do. If so, I'll report back
>> towards the end of the week when I have some more information.
>> 
>> All the best
>> 
>> Jo -- ***Jo Cook* Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West
>> Street, Epsom, Surrey, KT18 7RL, UK t:+44 750 095 8167 iShare -
>> Data integration and publishing platform 
>> <http://www.isharemaps.com/>
>> 
>> *****************************************
>> 
>> Company registration no. 5410695. Registered in England and
>> Wales. Registered office: 120 Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey,
>> KT19 8LN VAT no. 864201149.
>> 
>> _______________________________________________ Board mailing
>> list Board at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Board at lists.osgeo.org> 
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
> 
> 
> 
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- -- 
Exploring Space, Time and Mind
http://arnulf.us
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