[Board] OSGeo membership in GLTN

Thu Feb 6 07:47:56 PST 2014

Hi Arnulf, All,

I am fine with the proposal and Cameron's proposed changes.

Just one quick reminder as treasurer, in your initial mail you wrote 
"Joining this partnership will allow partners to fund individuals 
through OSGeo to join forces on the project, collaborate on the 
software, take part in meetings, conferences, workshops, etc."

I have to remind you all that our US non-profit status does not allow us 
to "fund individuals through OSGeo" to work on software projects as that 
would be unfair competition to private sector companies. However, as 
long as OSGeo doesn't pay for their work, we can still provide tools 
(like the hosted services you mention) or a venue (think: host a code 
sprint) to facilitate collaboration between participants who each get 
their own funding/salary directly from other sources.

The letter didn't talk about funding at all, so there is nothing to 
change there. This is just a friendly reminder.

Daniel

On 14-02-04 5:19 PM, Arnulf Christl wrote:
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> Hi Cameron,
> thank you for the quick reply and support. I changed the document
> according to your suggestions, find it attached (sorry for spamming
> your respective inboxes).
>
> Best regards,
> Arnulf
>
> On 02/03/2014 09:09 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>> Hi Arnulf, I think this is an excellent initiative that you are
>> proposing, re OSGeo supporting GLTN, and as a member of the OSGeo
>> board I'd like to vote to support it.
>>
>> However, before voting, I'd like to propose a few tweaks to your
>> proposed text. In particular, I think it important that OSGeo is
>> careful not to over promise what we can deliver, noting that we are
>> a volunteer driven organisation, and the best we can offer is to
>> encourage contributions from volunteers.
>>
>> Text is currently:
>>
>> /... and contribute to the development and evolution of the STDM
>> project. OSGeo is also interested in supporting training and
>> education through conferences and workshops on land tenure-related
>> topics and will support the development of a community of
>> developers especially from Africa around the project./
>>
>> I suggest changing to:
>>
>> /... and *encourage our volunteers to contribute* to the
>> development and evolution of the STDM project. OSGeo is also
>> interested in supporting training and education through
>> *encouraging STDM themes at* *our* conferences and workshops.
>> *<strike>**on land tenure-related topics and will support the
>> development of a community of developers especially from Africa
>> around the project.</strike>*/
>>
>>
>> (I suggest dropping specific reference to Africa, as I don't think
>> it adds value, and has potential to alienate other regions where
>> STDM will be valuable.)
>>
>> On 04/02/14 00:41, Arnulf Christl wrote: Dear Board, I am currently
>> working on a project for the UN-Habitat Office. They develop an
>> Open Source project called STDM (social tenure domain model). It is
>> a tool, data schema and concept to help data collection of tenure
>> data in informal settlements:
>> http://www.gltn.net/index.php/land-tools/social-tenure-domain-model-stdm
>>
>>   The toolset includes a plug-in for QGIS and a data schema for
>> PostGIS. STDM is a dedicated pro-poor effort and has been designed
>> especially to address the continuum of tenure relations typically
>> found in informal settlements. Slums usually lack a cadaster or
>> other precise mapping background and the relations between
>> ownership and tenure are not well defined. This tool is designed to
>> address these issues.
>>
>> The project has been started through GLTN (the Global Land Tool
>> Network, http://www.gltn.net/) a non-profit association dedicated
>> to developing tools for land registry and management. We (OSGeo)
>> have now been invited to become a partner of this association.
>> Joining this partnership will allow partners to fund individuals
>> through OSGeo to join forces on the project, collaborate on the
>> software, take part in meetings, conferences, workshops, etc.
>>
>> Our side of the commitment would be the provision of
>> infrastructure support for the STDM tool, the kind of support we
>> already give to some projects. The current focus lies on operating
>> the mailing lists for the project and set up a landing page in our
>> Wiki (which I both commit to doing). The STDM project has been set
>> up in compliance with OSGeo's way of doing things, the code will be
>> Open Source, the documentation available for free, etc. The coding
>> aspect of the project is not very big so we currently do not
>> foresee the need to go through incubation but it might be a nice
>> addition for our OSGeo Live effort.
>>
>> OSGeo's support for QGIS and PostGIS is highly appreciated by GLTN
>> and they acknowledge this as part of our active support in this
>> partnership. So basically we are already doing all that they need
>> and in turn they would like to give back through this partnership.
>>
>> I have already confirmed that we can set up mailing lists and will
>> do this in the next days (see ticket #1295).
>>
>> Could the board please go through the attached draft request for
>> membership and raise any questions you might have. Please note that
>> I will only be available until the end of the week but you can
>> also contact Danilo Antonio directly, he is the project lead at
>> UN-Habitat and copied in this mail - or Clarissa Augustinus, Chief,
>> Land & Tenure Section, UN-HABITAT.
>>
>> I would be happy to act as the initial point of contact unless
>> somebody else with a better background in our African OSGeo
>> chapter activities is highly interested in further developing this
>> relationship.
>>
>> Best regards, Arnulf
>>
>> PS: Please note that I will be away most of the rest of February
>> and into March.
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________ Board mailing
>>> list Board at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>>
>>
>> -- Cameron Shorter, Software and Data Solutions Manager LISAsoft
>> Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf, 26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009
>>
>> P +61 2 9009 5000,  W www.lisasoft.com,  F +61 2 9009 5099
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________ Board mailing list
>> Board at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>>
>
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> Exploring Body, Space and Mind
>
> - --
> Arnulf Christl
> http://metaspatial.net
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-- 
Daniel Morissette
T: +1 418-696-5056 #201
http://www.mapgears.com/
Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000