[Board] Fwd: [OSGeo-Discuss] Fwd: Foss4g 2012 ???

Wed May 2 16:28:32 PDT 2012

Nick:

It's hard, yes, but what else would you suggest we do? The board has no leverage to get the Beijing team to perform better; we have tried repeatedly to engage them without success, and we have no legal contract with them either.

Anyway, everyone should be aware that I'm NOT suggesting that the global FOSS4G be cancelled permanently: we have two very strong proposals for 2013, backed by well-known members of the community. It's only 2012 that I'm expressing my opinions about. (And they're just my opinions of course; I don't speak for the board as a whole!)

(( Also: that Jeff is not participating has nothing to do with this, and I wish people would stop bringing it up. Beijing's problems are what they are, and Jeff belatedly declined to assist in the 2012 effort for his own personal reasons. Que sera; no one of us is indispensable. ))

-mpg

From: nicolas bozon [mailto:nicolas.bozon at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 4:16 PM
To: mpg at flaxen.com
Cc: Seven (aka Arnulf); board at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Board] Fwd: [OSGeo-Discuss] Fwd: Foss4g 2012 ???

Hi all,

Mpg, whooa, you're the first one to publicly say that FOSS4G 2012 will be a regional event finally.
So what is happening to OSGeo this year ? No FOSS4G ? No Conference "Man" ? No ambassadors right ?
That's pretty hard. I mean i' don't see this year without any global FOSS4G, without any AGM, without any shootout (either WMS, WFS or WPS), and without our annual global gathering.
I know the Chinese team is late or may be did not do the job OSGeo is waiting from a LOC. But what ? 
Shoud'nt people, community, or the highest instances of OSGeo react to this ?
What is the Foundation going to do ? Just to annouce that we have no FOSS4G this year ?
Or just that community that is not attending FOSS4G-NA, FOSS4G-CEE or FOSS4G-CN just won't have any FOSS4G this year ?
That'd be the first year without any global event, at least for me, and at least without Jeff too...
I really think that if FOSS4G is going to become a regional event, then we MUST have Ambassadors and much stronger local chapters.

My 2 cents

Best,

Nick

2012/5/2 Michael P. Gerlek <mpg at flaxen.com>

I'm going to be the pessimist/extremist this time around:

The Beijing team has had plenty of time to get things going, but they have not succeeded. We reached out to them several times in several ways, but with no success.

Therefore, we (the board) should be honest with our community and officially remove the "annual FOSS4G meeting" designation from this event. That is within our authority and responsibility.

It won't be the right venue for the Sol Katz, the AGM, or the Shootout, because we won't have some of the key players there -- the distance to travel was a big enough burden to start with, but the lack of progress by the LOC has probably killed off any remaining chance of getting good international attendance. I don't think the AGM, Sol Katz, or Shootout should be held in Beijing, as the expected size, audience makeup, and organizational aspects there won't be significant enough.

The Beijing team is welcome to continue to hold an event, of course, but it will be "just" a regional event (e.g. like the North American one we had last month).

-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, May 02, 2012 10:18 AM
> To: board at lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: Re: [Board] Fwd: [OSGeo-Discuss] Fwd: Foss4g 2012 ???
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On 02.05.2012 18:58, nicolas bozon wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I agree Peter,
> >
> > However, OSGeo and Board should probably focuss on Beijing that
> > will happen, before advertizing Nottingham or Helsinki. I mean, is
> > there a way that board and community should try to 'save' that next
> > foss4g ? At least to get a real website, some calls for
> > papers/sponsors and may be a few attendees from EU or US, not only
> > people from China or Asia; it should be possible, even in 4/5
> > months ? am i wrong or desparate ?
>
> Thanks for chiming in, Nick.
>
> Yes, you are desperate - as we are. We have been trying to get a
> website work over the past three months - to no avail. There will
> still be some EU and US folks but not comparable to what we got used
> to with prior FOSS4G. It will not be comparable to the previous
> version of the global event - simply because we are running out of
> time. Our message is intended to make this clear to potential sponsors
> and to individuals and organizations who expect FOSS4G in Beijing to
> be "the" event. From all that I can tell it is not even sure whether
> we will be able to have a majority of the board of directors there and
> the AGM - if it takes place - will likely not represent a global
> representation either. Not sure whether we will have a WMS shootout,
> whether there will be workshops, or who of the globally recognized
> bigshot devs will be there - and all of these things need to be
> addressed in the coming weeks.
>
> Best regards,
> Arnulf
>
> > Best,
> >
> > Nick
> >
> >
> > 2012/5/2 Peter Batty <peter at ebatty.com <mailto:peter at ebatty.com>>
> >
> > Also, while we don't want it to be too long, we should maybe say
> > something along the lines of ...
> >
> > While we continue to review and evolve our conference strategy,
> > and anticipate multiple regional conferences in 2013, we do plan to
> > hold the primary global FOSS4G conference in Europe in 2013. We
> > have a selection process under way and the two candidates remaining
> > are Helsinki and Nottingham.
> >
> >
> > On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 10:31 AM, Jo Cook
> > <jocook at astuntechnology.com <mailto:jocook at astuntechnology.com>>
> > wrote:
> >
> > Hi Arnulf,
> >
> > In general I think this is fine. I think, for the sake of the
> > conspiracy-theorists amongst our membership that we should maybe
> > reiterate the point about the main FOSS4G, with the Sol Katz, AGM,
> > Directors F2F etc. This currently reads as if the Chinese event is
> > on the same level as the NA and CEE events, and regardless of the
> > issues at this stage it's still the main event. It's also quite
> > circumspect as well- maybe we should be a little more enthusiastic
> > about it?
> >
> > I've added another paragraph in-line which is my attempt at
> > addressing this (feel free to change)
> >
> > Jo
> >
> > On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 5:21 PM, Seven (aka Arnulf) <seven at arnulf.us
> > <mailto:seven at arnulf.us>> wrote:
> >
> > Board, in order to address the growing number of requests (see
> > another one below) I suggest that we officially communicate that
> > FOSS4G in China is going to happen - but under somewhat different
> > circumstances than the previous FOSS4G conferences might have us
> > expect.
> >
> > As an addendum I suggest to add that: This year saw quite a
> > significant change in the policy around FOSS4G. It is the first
> > time that we are having three major FOSS4G conferences in one year.
> > One has already happened in North America (Washington DC, USA),
> > the second Central and Eastern Europe edition will take place in
> > May in Prague in the Czech Repulic and the third one will take
> > place in China, Beijing. In addition there is a growing number of
> > local conferences, sometimes also under the name FOSS4G. OSGeo is
> > new to this and we are still collecting experiences as to the
> > effects that this diversity has on the originally one and only
> > global FOSS4G.
> >
> >
> >> Having said that, FOSS4G in Beijing is still our main FOSS4G
> >> event, and we will be holding the Sol Katz award, OSGeo AGM and
> >> Board of Directors meeting there. We fully support the event and
> >> the efforts being put in by the Beijing team and hope to see as
> >> many of you there as possible.
> >
> >
> > The conference organizers in Beijing have experienced serious
> > delays in the schedule due to local circumstances which OSGeo
> > cannot influence. It is therefore at this point in time not clear
> > how many international sponsors or participants will be in
> > Beijing. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor we suggest to
> > directly contact the Beijing organizing team through the FOSS4G
> > 2012 mailing list. If you are interested in submitting an abstract
> > for a presentation or a workshop please be prepared to have a short
> > submission period which will be announced on all channels once
> > available.
> >
> > EOF
> >
> > Please help me edit this message. It should not be too long so
> > that people actually take the time to read it. We must send
> > something along these lines now because sponsors are delaying their
> > support for other potential events which would make more sense to
> > them. And in general we do not make a good impression with FOSS4G
> > in China right now, so stepping back a bit and explaining why is
> > required. On the other hand we also want to be as positive as
> > possible towards the our Chinese hosts. If you have any better
> > ideas I am all open for a completely new message but we cannot
> > delay this any more.
> >
> > Cheers, Arnulf
> >
> > -------- Original Message -------- Subject:        [OSGeo-Discuss]
> > Fwd: Foss4g 2012 ??? Date:   Tue, 1 May 2012 13:47:41 +0200 From:
> > Massimiliano Cannata <massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch
> > <mailto:massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch>> To:     OSGeo Discussions
> > <discuss at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:discuss at lists.osgeo.org>>
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi all, I didn't see any news since a long time. On the website no
> > deadlines or communications... Usually things was already moved...
> > What's up? What's going on?
> >
> > I would expect soon communication from the board as this the
> > 'official' OSGeo event...
> >
> > Looking forward for a successful 2012 event.
> >
> > Maxi
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________ Board mailing list
> > Board at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Board at lists.osgeo.org>
> > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -- ***Jo Cook* Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West
> > Street, Epsom, Surrey, KT18 7RL, UK t:+44 750 095 8167 <tel:%2B44%20750%20095%208167> 
> > <tel:%2B44%20750%20095%208167> 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
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> >
> >
> >
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> - --
> Exploring Space, Time and Mind
> http://arnulf.us
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