[Board] [OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G rotation - proposal and vote

[Dave McIlhagga]

+1

Dave



On 2013-04-20, at 6:51 PM, Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:

> OSGeo Conference committee:
> 
> I trust that there has been sufficient time for anyone with an opinion regarding foss4g rotation to air it, and I'd like propose a vote in order to test/confirm that we have reached a rough consensus.
> 
> I propose that the international FOSS4G rotation policy be defined as per:
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Cookbook#City_Selection
> 
> (text copied below)
> The regions FOSS4G rotates through are:
> 
>    Europe
>    North America
>    Rest of world
> 
> This is caveatted by the OSGeo Conference committee feeling confident that the proposed city/region will attract the majority of the international FOSS4G audience.
> 
> So our rotation policy is:
> 
>    Strong preference is given to the region which hasn't had FOSS4G for 2 years
>    We next consider the region which had FOSS4G 2 years ago
>    Only as a last resort would we consider a region which had FOSS4G last year
> 
> ------------
> Could all current conference committee members please vote. Past member votes would also be welcomed.
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Conference_Committee#Current_Members
> 
> Current Members
> 
>    Thierry Badard
>    Lorenzo Becchi
>    Peter Batty
>    Gavin Fleming
>    Dave McIlhagga
>    Helena Mitasova
>    Claude Philipona
>    Venkatesh Raghavan
>    Paul Ramsey
>    Cameron Shorter
> 
> Past Members
> 
>    Allan Doyle
>    Olivier Ertz
>    Alain Grignon
>    Luc Maurer
>    Daniel Rappo
>    Dave Patton
>    Rafael Medeiros Sperb
>    Jeff McKenna
>    Arnulf Christl
>    Markus Neteler
>    Frank Warmerdam
>    Steve Lime
> 
> On 13/04/13 07:24, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>> In the last board meeting, the question was raised about global FOSS4G rotation.
>> 
>> we currently have a 3 way rotation policy: Europe 2013 / North America 2014 / Rest of world 2015
>> 
>> It has been suggested that we should revisit this rotation policy, and consider:
>> 
>> Europe / North America / Europe / North America
>> 
>> Reasons:
>> * Previous global FOSS4G events have attracted more people and been more lucrative in Europe / North America
>> * Europe/North America could be argued to be less financially risky. Our one cancelled FOSS4G was in China in 2012.
>> * FOSS4G (global and regional) events traditionally draw half their attendance from the local region. Europe and North America both have large populations with established OSGeo communities.
>> 
>> I'm in favour of continuing our current 3 way rotation, on the proviso that there are proven OSGeo communities outside of NA/Europe. By proven, I'd suggest that we would consider regions which have already successfully staged a FOSS4G regional event (or similar) and who can put together a compelling justification that they can attract comparable attendees and sponsors to Europe/North America.
>> 
>> Looking at: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_History
>> I see that there have previously been regional FOSS4G events in:
>> Argentina
>> India
>> Korea
>> Malaysia
>> Japan
>> 
>> So for 2015, I'd suggest that our FOSS4G pre qualification should invite responses from "rest of the world" and Europe, but we should give a preference to "rest of world" assuming they can provide a compelling proposal which is likely to attract similar success to past European and North American conferences.
>> 
>> Generalising the rule. Our rotation policy should be:
>> 
>> * We give a strong preference to a region which hasn't had FOSS4G for 2 years
>> * We next consider the region which had FOSS4G 2 years ago
>> * Only as a last resort would we consider a region which had FOSS4G last year
>> 
>> Regions are considered as: Europe / North America / Other locations
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Cameron Shorter
> Geospatial Solutions Manager
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
> 
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
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> http://www.lisasoft.com
> 
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