[Board] Fwd: Official expression of interest forming a Belgian Chapter

[Jeff McKenna]

I've added this request to the Board meeting agenda.  I've also spoken 
with Dirk and asked to have the chapter information (structure, 
objectives) listed on the chapter's wiki page.

-jeff




On 2015-06-15 12:19 PM, Jeff McKenna wrote:
> forwarding request to the OSGeo Board list, I think this message did not
> make it through. -jeff
>
>
>
>
> -------- Forwarded Message --------
> Subject: Official expression of interest forming a Belgian Chapter
> Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2015 21:54:27 +0200
> From: Dirk Frigne <dirk.frigne at geosparc.com>
> Reply-To: dirk.frigne at geosparc.com
> Organization: Geosparc
> To: board at lists.osgeo.org
> CC: dirk at frigne.be <dirk at frigne.be>, Jeff McKenna
> <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com>, belgium at lists.osgeo.org
>
> Dear OSGeo Board,
>
> Reason for my mail is to officially express our interest to form a
> Belgium local chapter of OSGeo.
>
> 1. self-organise
>
> During the last FOSDem Geospatial devroom[1] OSGeo was represented. It
> was a great opportunity for Belgium OSGeo members to meet each other and
> start talking about organizing ourselves a bit more, so actions in
> Belgium can be better supported. Belgium is, as a country divided in at
> least 3 speaking languages and 3 official languages. The active OSGeo
> community members today are either active in the OSGeo.nl, the OSGeo.fr
> or in several OSGeo communities.
>
> However, OSGeo-nl and OSGeo-fr are language-oriented communities with
> their geographical weight centred in respectively Netherlands and
> France, and the separation by language has impeded on any specific
> Belgian activities, notably networking and lobbying with administrations
> that are bilingual on some levels of governance. Thus the need arose to
> provide a specific Belgian forum.
>
> In the past there where already some OSGeo local activities:
> OSGeoGhent - 13 June 2013 [2]
> FOSDEM2014 - booth 1 & 2 Februari 2014 [3]
> Be-OpenGIS-Fr - 6 November 2014  [4]
> FOSDEM2015 - devroom - 31 Jan; 1 Februari 2015 [1]
>
> This year we (OSGeoBE) have the ambition to organise a first FOSS4G-BE
> on 29 October 2015 in Brussels. This event will also be used to announce
> the birth of our Chapter (if the Board supports this).
>
> In preparation for this official expression of interest, a couple of
> meetings have already taken place, one physical, most of them trough
> digital communication (skype/IRC). The meeting minutes can be found on
> the OSGeo wiki [5]
>
> 2. mission objectives
>
> After discussion amongst the active local chapter members we come to the
> following list of mission objectives:
>
> * Community-building and networking around specific Belgian themes and
> within Belgian fora.
>
> * Organisation of events
>
> These two mission statements are working together. We believe it is
> important to meet people face2face.
> To help them to start open source initiatives, to start using open
> source solutions, to establish an eco-system that benefits from the
> cooperation, the sharing and the co-creation open source delivers.
>
> * Lobbying
>
> We think it is important to speak as one voice, and to get involved with
> other organisations: administrations, industries, user groups, ...
> OSGeo. Be will actively speak as an organisation to defend the OSGeo
> open source spirit in the broader Belgium community (government,
> academic, industry, other open initiatives).
>
>
> * Networking with other OSGeos (notably OSGeo-fr and OSGeo.nl)
>
> OSGeo Belgium will focus on local activities (Belgium based). OSGeo
> Belgium will advertise and promote other OSGeo initiatives and invite
> members of the other OSGeo chapters on the Belgium events or meetings.
> We think that OSGeo Belgium can act as a bridge between several language
> communities and cultures, because of it's unique composition.
>
> * Support to higher levels of OSGeo
>
> We believe that OSGeo only can grow if supported from the base. So OSGeo
> Belgium is willing to help OSGeo where necessary, to leverage idea's or
> act as an advisor if appreciated.
>
> * Support to OSGeo in lobbying European Union Institutions (Commission,
> Parliament, etc) related to specific EU-Themes (INSPIRE, H2020,
> Procurement policy, ...)
>
> 3. The Belgium OSGeo Chapter proposes Dirk Frigne [6], Member of OSGeo
> since 2007, Charter member of OSGeo since 2013 to liaise with the OSGeo
> Board.
>
> 4. List of initial members:
>
> The Belgium OSGeo Chapter has the support of the following initial
> founding members (alphabetic - first name):
>
> Ben Abelhausen  - liason with OSM - Belgium community
> Dirk Frigne [6] - founding member of the Geomajas community
> Gaël Kruwialis  - active memmber of the local FOSS momement in the
> Brussels area - contact with the Brussels administration
> Johan Van de Wauw [7] - OSGeo Advocate,
> Maëlle VERCAUTEREN  - Coordinatrice du stage SIG Libres ARES
> Marc Ducobu  - liason with OSGeo.fr
> Moritz Lennert [8] - GRASS GIS PSC Member, contact with academic world
> Pieter Colpaert  - link with the open knowledge foundation
> Ruben Capelle  - please add
> Tommy Ozeer  - OSGeo  member
>
> 5. May I kindly ask the OSGeo Board to consider passing a motion forming
> the Belgium chapter, and designating Dirk Frigne as the liason officer.
>
>
> [1] http://www.osgeo.org/node/1488
> [2] http://www.geomajas.org/osgeogent2013
> [3] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSDEM2014
> [4] http://www.osgeo.org/node/1468
> [5] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Belgium
> [6] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Dirkf
> [7]  http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Johanvdw
> [8]  http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Mlennert
>