[Board] Writing up OSGeo priorities
Cameron Shorter
cameron.shorter at gmail.com
Fri Mar 1 15:58:25 PST 2013
Thanks for your feedback Jeff,
I've extended the description to incorporate your feedback.
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2013-02-26#Board_Priorities
On 02/03/13 01:18, Jeff McKenna wrote:
> Hello Cameron,
>
> From my notes from the meeting, we agreed upon 6 "principles" or
> priorities for following OSGeo's mission:
>
> 1) Supporting FOSS4G events, both regional and international. This can
> include financial backing when the Board deems appropriate. This
> therefore means that any FOSS4G event of any size or "region" can
> approach the OSGeo Board for assistance. The Board realizes that these
> events are important for OSGeo's mission.
>
> 2) Supporting Code Sprints. This can include financial backing when the
> Board deems appropriate. This therefore means that any code sprint
> committee can approach the OSGeo Board for assistance.
>
> 3) Sponsor Events. The Board agrees that it is very flexible and may
> sponsor other events when appropriate.
>
> 4) Supporting packaging/distribution of our projects. The Board
> realizes the importance of packages such as OSGeoLive, and is willing to
> provide financial support where possible.
>
> 5) Supporting educational use and the growth of OSGeo Labs. The recent
> hard work of Suchith and other academic leaders is helping the spread of
> OSGeo to students across the globe; the Board is placing a high priority
> on helping these OSGeo Labs grow. These students are the future of our
> industry and the future of OSGeo.
>
> 6) Supporting local chapters. The Board realizes that all of the heavy
> lifting happens at the local chapter level. OSGeo's success relies on
> the hard work of members of our official and "in formation" local
> chapters all around the world.
>
> In general, the take-away from the extended Board meeting is that we all
> agree that we are now back to our "grassroots"; and the list of
> priorities above shows that (our strength and passion lies in regional
> events, code sprints, local chapters, OSGeo Labs, LiveDVD). We are
> generally a low-cost organization, and any revenue we have will go back
> to these core activities.
>
> Our community is so vibrant, and we all agree we must let is grow and
> thrive.
>
> (not sure how my notes fit into your notes Cameron, but I am sharing anyway)
>
> -jeff
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 13-02-28 6:52 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>> As promised,
>> I've put a first draft of OSGeo's priorities in our wiki - from the
>> board meeting.
>> Once comments have died down, I suspect we will want to copy content to
>> another location.
>>
>> Feel free to edit wiki text, or email comments on specific items in the
>> text copied below
>>
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2013-02-26#Board_Priorities
>>
>>
>> Board Priorities
>>
>> A productive virtual meeting of the OSGeo Board resulted in general
>> consensus over OSGeo's priorities, which in turn should help the OSGeo
>> Board and OSGeo committees when guiding OSGeo into the future.
>>
>> These principles are:
>>
>> * OSGeo should act as a low capital, volunteer focused organisation.
>> * OSGeo should focus support on OSGeo communities and initiatives
>> which support themselves.
>> * OSGeo should support global, regional and local FOSS4G related
>> events that request help.
>>
>> So lets expand on these principles:
>>
>>
>> OSGeo as a low capital, volunteer focused organisation
>>
>> Should OSGeo act as a high capital or low capital organisation? I.e.,
>> should OSGeo dedicate energy to collecting sponsorship and then passing
>> out these funds to worthy OSGeo causes.
>>
>> While initially it seems attractive to have OSGeo woe sponsors, because
>> we would all love to have more money to throw at worthy OSGeo goals, the
>> reality is that chasing money is hard work. And someone who can chase
>> OSGeo sponsorship is likely conflicted with chasing sponsorship for
>> their particular workplace. So in practice, to be effective in chasing
>> sponsorship, OSGeo will probably need to hire someone specifically for
>> the role. OSGeo would then need to raise at least enough to cover wages,
>> and then quite a bit more if the sponsorship path is to create extra value.
>>
>> This high capital path is how the Apache foundation is set up, and how
>> LocationTech propose to organise themselves. It is the path that OSGeo
>> started following when founded under the umbrella of Autodesk.
>>
>> However, over the last seven years, OSGeo has slowly evolved toward a
>> low capital volunteer focused organisation. Our overheads are very low,
>> which means we waste very little of our volunteer labour and capital on
>> the time consuming task of chasing and managing money. Consequently, any
>> money we do receive (from conference windfalls or sponsorship) goes a
>> long way - as it doesn't get eaten up by high overheads. As discussed
>> and agreed by the board, this low capital path is something that is
>> working very well for us, and the path we should continue to follow.
>>
>>
>> Support initiatives which support themselves
>>
>> With the thousands of great initiatives and opportunities that OSGeo
>> could get involved in, and limited budget, how should OSGeo set funding
>> priorities? Acknowledging that our volunteer community is blessed with
>> many talented individuals, our most effective way to tap into community
>> potential is to welcome individuals to "help scratch their itch".
>> Extending on this, funding priorities should follow the actions of
>> already has successful communities. (Note the difference between "talk"
>> and "action"). If a task or project is important enough, it will attract
>> volunteers and/or sponsors to make it happen. In practice, this will
>> usually equate to providing co-contributions rather than outright funding.
>>
>> OSGeo's focus should be on initiatives which are of value to all or most
>> OSGeo projects, and to get best value for our limited budget, OSGeo
>> should target initiatives which have high value with minimal investment.
>>
>> With that in mind our priorities should be:
>>
>> * Cover the costs of running OSGeo: Bank fees, insurance,
>> infrastructure, hosting etc.
>> * Support marketing and out reach activities, with a primary focus on
>> our FOSS4G global conference, followed by regional and then local
>> FOSS4G or related events.
>> * Educational type activities are a high priority, but likely will be
>> a zero cost activity from OSGeo's perspective.
>> * Other initiatives which fit our priorities, as suggested by membership.
>>
>> Initiatives which probably wouldn't quality:
>>
>> * Sponsoring core development of a particular project. (Too expensive,
>> and only supports one project)
>> * OSGeo speaker travel expenses, or booth registration costs at a
>> conference. (If conferences/local community feel this is important,
>> they will either: 1. pay for the keynote, 2. make use of local
>> talent, 3. waive fees for our non-profit, 4. find a local sponsor)
>>
>>
>> Conferences
>>
>> Conferences are financially risky events. They need to be planned well
>> in advance, and you are never sure how many people will turn up, or
>> whether some global event will have a substantial impact on
>> registrations. Consequently, conferences such as FOSS4G require
>> financial guarantees up front in order to secure a venue. To support and
>> enable these conferences, OSGeo will endevour to retain sufficient
>> capital to offer such guarantees for any FOSS4G event requesting it. If
>> OSGeo's support is requested, then OSGeo would expect these events to
>> budget for a modest profit under conservative estimates, and for OSGeo
>> to retain profits from such events. To date, such profits, while
>> relatively modest, have been OSGeo's primary income source.
>>
>>
>> Sponsorship
>>
>> OSGeo will continue to welcome sponsorship. Due to OSGeo's low capital
>> model, we are able to make sponsor's contribution provide substantial
>> benefit to the greater OSGeo community. In return, we promote sponsors'
>> logos on our website and through our OSGeo-Live marketing pipeline
>> (which was used at 45 geospatial events around the world in 2012).
>>
>> However, OSGeo is doesn't plan to either task volunteers with
>> specifically chasing sponsors, or hire someone to chase sponsorship on
>> OSGeo's behalf.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cameron Shorter
>> Geospatial Solutions Manager
>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>
>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
>> http://www.lisasoft.com
>>
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--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com
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