[Board] Student Awards - Inputs needed from the community

Fri Feb 13 09:06:25 PST 2015

Hi Suchith,

Thanks for explaining this Student Award initiative to the OSGeo Board.

Reading your thorough plan for the award, I am in full support of the 
plan, however my concern is putting so much work/responsibility on the 
OSGeo Treasurer, a volunteer position (at least 10 payments to various 
local event committees each year).

Mike (treasurer), what are your own thoughts on that?

-jeff

On 2015-02-11 7:31 AM, Suchith Anand wrote:
> Hi Maxi,
>
> This student award is an OSGeo initiative (though we will welcome any other interested organisations to join and contribute once the structure is in place) and that is why i put the proposal directly to OSGeo Board and want the OSGeo to run this and made it clear that it will be the OSGeo Treasurer who will be in charge of all finance. The Award Committee is only there to facilitate the student awards globally. I leave it to OSGeo Board and Treasuer to advice us on which will be best way for this ( i do not have any expertise on finance matters).
>
> The 10K USD budget allocation from OSGeo budget is requested  to fund student awards for at least 10 Conferences/Competitions each year  (including at all FOSS4G main events) world-wide with  maximum 1k USD to be allocated per conference/event.
>
> To answer your questions
>
> 1. My suggestion is that it is named " Geo for All" Student Awards . Obviously ICA and ISPRS are involved in Geo for All , so we will have their logos also in the certificates given out by the local competitions. It is also a great boost for the students CV (much more important than the monetary award) that their work is recognised by all three great organisations. My humble suggestion is that OSGeo Board sees this Student Awards as an educational investment and responsibility and should lead this. If others join we should welcome them but not keep that as a requirement to start the initiative.
>
> 2. Any interested organisations who wish to contribute to the student awards should directly contact the OSGeo Treasuer and i suggest that there is a website created for the Student Awards initiative
>
> 3. We plan to support at least 10 conferences/events each year.
>
> Once we get the OSGeo Board approval, we will
>
> - Send out a 'Call for Student Awards' scheme widely on appropriate mailing lists (osgeo discuss, etc) and also in the website of "Geo for All"
> - Only LOC of established GIS conferences including FOSS4G local conferences worldwide can apply
> - Interested LOCs to send their applications to the chair of the Award Committee with details of their selection procedures
> - Committee selects which events/conferences to fund the student award based on a set of criteria (to be developed by Charlie in consultation with all members)
> - LOC to prepare certificates and tokens of appreciation
> - Make arrangements for presenting award in coordination with LOC
> - Maximum 1k USD to be allocated per conference/event
> - All student award winners should write a blogpost after the event
> - All awards and winner details to be promoted widely through OSGeo channels and published at Geo for All website
>
> 4. In which occasion? What is the amount of the single prize?
>
> Though the FOSS4G main events (World, Europe, NA) are the obvious ones , we can only know which all conferences/events  will apply once we send the call for student awards scheme out.
>
> But i am sure there will be strong response. For example yesterday on the sidelines of the Certification ideas tele meeting we had at Geo for All, i was explaining the ideas behind the Student Awards and came to know details of QGIS Developer/User meeting planned in Copenghagen. That is really good opportunity and if we have structures in place, i am sure the main organisor Lene Fischer will be happy to plan ideas for  student competition and apply for this.
>
> The maximum allocation per event will be 1k USD. If the local organisers are able to use this to get other sponsors etc  to increase the value of the awards, it will be excellent
>
> I have put all my suggestions in the wiki at http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Ica-osgeo-isprs_award, so please add/contribute your ideas on how we can improve this directly as well. If you have any other specific queries, feel free to email me.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Suchith
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Massimiliano Cannata [massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2015 9:53 AM
> To: Suchith Anand; Jorge Sanz
> Cc: board at lists.osgeo.org; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] [Board] Student Awards - Inputs needed from the community
>
> Hi Suchith,
> Thanks for leading this initiative with great passion and competence.
>
> As member of the board, as you ask for 10k USD, personally, I would appreciate having already defined rules, but as I know the Award Committee  will do a great job in that, I am more concerned in understanding how moneys are planned to be spent in 2015 (where the 10k come from basically) and how OSGeo is involved.
>
> Just, some questions that came to my mind:
> - will be the award be in the name of the ICA-OSGEO-ISPRS?
> - If yes, how will other association contribute?
> - How many do you plan to assign in 2015?
> - In which occasion? What is the amount of the single prize?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Maxi
>
>
>
> Il giorno Wed Feb 11 2015 at 10:37:15 AM Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>> ha scritto:
> Hi Jorge,
>
> You understood correctly and i appreciate the excellent work of all OSGeo  Directors and it is important to get feedbacks from you all so we can improve the ideas.
>
> Yes, the details of how to run the individual competitions, who are in the judging panel etc are to be left with the local organisers. Maybe it is easier to explain giving an example  using the NASA WW Challenge that Maria and Patrick are organising at FOSS4G -Europe 2015
>
> As long as the competition has a set for criteria established on which they will evaluate the entries (see at http://eurochallenge.como.polimi.it/challenge2014  )  and a panel of experts http://eurochallenge.como.polimi.it/org_sccom  to do the evaluation, it is a good example of an initiative to support for the student awards. In fact, this was this competition which got me thinking that it will be good if we can put in place a structure to replicate this Student Awards for other FOSS4G and GIS events.
>
> Similarly , if it is a student paper compeition or poster competion etc they will have different requirements and in my humble opinion the Award Committee should leave the details of the competition and the selection to the LOC who are organising the individual events. The Award Committee main role is to facilitate and encourage the LOCs of various events in their aim to give student awards and increase student participation for FOSS4G. The Award Committee will also have to be flexible and learn to accommodate new ideas/inputs as it grows. The reason to set up a globally distributed awards committee is to make sure there is healthy debates for bringing collective inputs and great ideas.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Suchith
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Maria Antonia Brovelli [maria.brovelli at polimi.it<mailto:maria.brovelli at polimi.it>]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2015 8:24 AM
> To: Jorge Sanz; Suchith Anand
> Cc: board at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org>; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
> Subject: Re: [Board] [Ica-osgeo-labs] Student Awards - Inputs needed from       the community
>
> Yes, Jorge this is exactly the idea. Being more detailed at this level is difficult, because it depends on the events of the following years. In my opinion now we are at the very beginning and it is better to evaluate year by year how to use these resources. In any case there is an Advisory Board in the geoforall initiative that can  discuss about the specific awards. It won't be an individual decision.
> Thanks a lot!
> Maria
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
> Prof. Maria Antonia Brovelli
> Vice Rector for Como Campus and GIS Professor
> Politecnico di Milano
>
> FOSS4G Europe - Don't miss it!
>    http://europe.foss4g.org/2015/Home
>
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> ________________________________________
> Da: board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> <board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>> per conto di Jorge Sanz <jsanz at osgeo.org<mailto:jsanz at osgeo.org>>
> Inviato: mercoledì 11 febbraio 2015 09.15
> A: Suchith Anand
> Cc: board at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org>; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
> Oggetto: Re: [Board] [Ica-osgeo-labs] Student Awards - Inputs needed from       the community
>
> 2015-02-10 10:41 GMT+01:00 Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>>:
>> Helena and all,
>>
>> The aim is that we are able to fund student awards for at least 10 Conferences/Competitions each year  (including at all FOSS4G main events) world-wide with  maximum 1k USD to be allocated per conference/event. If there are more than 10 applications per year we have to decide which ones to fund based on the set of criteria to be established. I request Charlie Schweik as the chair of the committee to decide the award criteria with inputs from all.  Once the framework is in place, we will invite other Geo organisations including ICA, ISPRS to contribute directly to OSGeo for expanding this student awards initiative.
>>
>> As Patrick said, i only wanted to put the big picture with you all on this and it is up to the Board and the Award Committee to decide the details of how to do the most good with OSGEO support.
>>
>> Not only the FOSS4G main events (Euro, NA, World) can apply to organise student awards with this initiative but others also are welcome to submit their applications. For example, if colleagues in Mexico or South Africa  are organising a local FOSS4G or  any other GIS related conferences are organising a FOSS4G session  and wish to give student awards for the student best papers, they can send an email with all their details (website of the student competion, the panel judging the awards, criteria of their selection procedures etc) to the chair of the awards committee and the Award committee will look into the proposal against the set of criteria and make decision quickly.
>>
>> Hope it gives the idea of the scale we wish to expand this once the frameworks are in place.
>>
>> Suchith
>
>
> So if I understood well, in essence this is about a series of awards
> all over FOSS4G/Geospatial conferences to award students that have had
> a significant contribution to Open Source. Leaving apart of the
> details (who decides who is awarded, the amount, etc) I support the
> idea as a consistent, regular prize that many conferences will want to
> participate. In fact I'd expect to have some competition on which ones
> get a prize, that will be more work for the committee, but that's
> good!
>
> It will not only be a great incentive to students and teachers, the
> outreach potential for GeoForAll idea, ISPRS, ICA and OSGeo will be
> huge.
>
> Thanks Suchith for the effort on putting some light on the idea, at
> least from my part, you guys at GeoForAll have all the support but as
> was said on the Board meeting, we the Directors want to do our job
> responsibly and needed more details on the general idea of the awards.
>
> Best
>
> --
> Jorge Sanz
> http://www.osgeo.org
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Jorge_Sanz
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