[Board] MOT: support UN Workshop participation

Sat Aug 20 09:04:48 PDT 2016

OSGeo Board Members, Professors, All -

  In these early stage conversations, a few ideas :

* I feel it is possibly fatal to the efforts for FOSS Geo to speak 
about "replacement" of proprietary software, inside a United Nations 
committee or elsewhere, for several reasons:
  - it feeds fear among management that it is a war ..real 
intelligence is needed now, not fear-based decisions
  - there is more than enough work and resources for participants 
right now .. there is an explosion of geo data and new applications,
     a plurality of allocation methods is needed, not monoculture. 
Do not become the likeness of your "enemy"
  - real invention and new repurposing is happening daily, not 
"replacement" of one old widget for another 

* My experience with the United Nations in San Francisco has been 
mixed... There is a continual addition of well-intentioned people who 
are insufficiently funded, making constant neediness a norm. However, 
some players bring resources and others can manage them well, so there 
is constructive forward motion, too.. A low-funds dot-org like OSGeo 
must be careful about using cash

* Sending committed representatives of OSGeo to a committee process is 
simultaneously an investment in those individuals, and OSGeo, and the 
committee process.. So if real synergy is possible, then many benefits 
may be seeded.. it might be good for OSGeo 

* Please take seriously the deep impact of the process of software 
development here.. There is literally no way anyone can predict what 
breakthrough or opportunity may arise in this highly networked and 
computationally powerful digital age. However, the process must have 
defense.. the legal agreements and organizational disciplines of a 
mature dot-org are required, not optional, to bring powerful benfits 
and opportunity from early stage to realization.  Competition, 
confusion of purpose, rivalry and mistrust, are real even with higher 
purpose motivations. Approach the United Nations and others with 
competancy each day. 

  for example, one hangover, a language barrier, and mistrust created 
a ridiculous series of events within our own OSGeo-Live team already, 
earlier this year.. the effects of that still hang like a bad smell 
while good work is being done, too ..  these are setbacks and do not 
always heal well

* There are existential dangers in our age, and higher purpose action 
is needed. Whether this comes from commercial actors, Universities and 
institutions of learning, government, private sector.. each has their 
own strengths.. a non-commercial player has an opportunity to build 
relationships across these worlds. The United Nations may be a vehicle 
to reach governments, in particular. 

  more ideas on request
  best regards from Berkeley, California
  --Brian M Hamlin

On Sat, 20 Aug 2016 03:24:23 +0200, Polimi  wrote:

       Jeroen, in my opinion the reasoning is upside down. UNOPenGIS is 
a joint relevant attempt of migration from proprietary to open source 
GIS. But it is not the project of UN. It is also our project, as 
Foundation. We are putting the usual volunteer effort, many people are 
contributing with less or much time. UN is putting the time of part of 
the staff and the support for their traveling. The same is doing  the 
other teams contributing (like GEOShape, GeoSDI, the Korean 
Government,etc). What we are asking to OSGeo, as it was decide that 
this is an interesting attempt ( the aim is to verify if and how much 
it is possible to migrate to OS and this, in my opinion, is something 
of interest of OSGeo), is to support our travel to the workshop because 
this is important for speeding up the activity of that global 
heterogenous team. 
In conclusion: is this really interesting for OSGeo or not? if, at the 
end of the day, the answer is not, better to know it before.  OSGeo 
can decide that we prefer to focus on something different and to put 
our effort on something more relevant for us. But it has to be decided. 
At this point, instead of saying that I'm doing this and that as OSGeo 
and G4A, I'll say that I'm doing that as Maria. Or simply, I go in 
holiday and avoid working all August. The point is what we think as 
strategic. If this is not strategic for OSGeo, just let me know ;-)
Cheers, 
Maria

----------------------------------------------------
https://www.flickr.com/photos/137617942@N02/

Prof. Maria Antonia Brovelli
Vice Rector for Como Campus and GIS Professor
Politecnico di Milano

ISPRS WG IV/5 "Web and Cloud Based Geospatial Services and 
Applications"; OSGeo; GeoForAll Advisory Board; NASA WorldWind Europa 
Challenge; SIFET 

Sol Katz Award 2015

Via Natta, 12/14 - 22100 COMO (ITALY)
Tel. +39-031-3327336 - Mob. +39-328-0023867 - fax. +39-031-3327321
e-mail1: maria.brovelli at polimi.it
e-mail2: prorettrice at como.polimi.it

Il giorno 20 ago 2016, alle ore 02:43, Jeroen Ticheler  ha scritto:

       Dear Maxi,
I think that the UN should financially support your participation if 
they are serious about the initiative. Speaking from experience inside 
out it seems not so good practice to have people fund their own 
participation. And although money can be an issue within the system, it 
is definitely a matter of prioritizing. IMHO honest prioritizing 
towards the use of FOSS is reflected by the UN's will to fund this 
(minimal!) expense. 
My 2 cents. Cheers,
Jeroen

GeoCat Bridge for ArcGIS allows instant publishing of data and metadata 
on GeoServer, MapServer, PostGIS and GeoNetwork. Visit 
http://geocat.net for details. 
_________________________Jeroen Ticheler
GeoCat bv
Veenderweg 13
6721 WD Bennekom
Tel: +31 (0)6 81286572
http://geocat.net

Op 19 aug. 2016 om 21:53 heeft Massimiliano Cannata  het volgende geschreven:

       Dear Board,
I would like to ask for financial support for Maria Brovelli and 
Massimiliano Cannata to participate in the second UN openGIS initiative 
workshops (held in Seoul 7-11 Nov.) as requested from UN as members of 
the Strategic Board of the initiative. 

The total cost per person should not exceed 1'500 € 

Please, don't hesitate to ask for further required information. 

Best,
Maxi

-- 
Massimiliano Cannata
Professore SUPSI in ingegneria Geomatica
Responsabile settore Geomatica

Istituto scienze della Terra

Dipartimento ambiente costruzione e design
Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana
Campus Trevano, CH - 6952 Canobbio

Tel. +41 (0)58 666 62 14
Fax +41 (0)58 666 62 09
massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch
www.supsi.ch/ist

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--
Brian M Hamlin
OSGeo California Chapter
blog.light42.com

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