[Board] preparing the GEO - OSGeo partnership

[Dirk Frigne]

Hi Cameron,

Thank you for your question.
my 2c:

First some context, then what I would like to obtain.

GEO Vision

To realize a future where decisions and actions, for the benefit of
humankind, are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained
Earth observation information and services.

GEO Mission

GEO’s mission is to connect the demand for sound and timely
environmental information with the supply of data and information about
the Earth.

Advocacy for broad, open data policies helps ensure that the data
collected through national, regional and global observing systems is
both made available and applied to decision-making for global priorities
including The Sustainable Development Goals, The Paris Agreement on
climate change, The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and
Aichi Targets of The Convention on Biodiversity.

What is GEO:
Established in 2005, GEO is a voluntary partnership of governments and
organizations that envisions “a future wherein decisions and actions for
the benefit of humankind are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and
sustained Earth observations and information.” GEO Member governments
include 102 nations and the European Commission, and 103 Participating
Organizations comprised of international bodies with a mandate in Earth
observations. Together, the GEO community is creating a Global Earth
Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) that will link Earth observation
resources world-wide across multiple Societal Benefit Areas -
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability, Disaster Resilience, Energy
and Mineral Resources Management, Food Security and Sustainable
Agriculture, Infrastructure & Transportation Management, Public Health
Surveillance, Sustainable Urban Development, Water Resources Management
- and make those resources available for better informed decision-making.

As an organisation they need infrastructure, and a lot of the data is
handled by different proprietary software solutions, often not really
interoperable. There is a need and will to use more open software. OSGeo
could become a partner of GEO to outreach to the 102 nations and speak
about our open source solutions. Providing a live environment, so the
different initiatives can start detecting our projects.
Explain why open source software is important for creating and
distributing decision support systems.

So I think becoming a partner and spread the word about who we are and
what GEO could do with our softwaare solutions and how they can support
our community to empower their goals, could be a good step forward to
support our mission: "empower everyone with open source geospatial".

But that are just my 2c,
I am open to hear other voices

D.

On 30-08-16 13:10, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Hi Dirk,
> 
> A question I suggest asking when drafting a MOU is "What is the point of
> the MOU?"
> 
> What are both organisations hoping to achieve which can be done better
> by working together than separately?
> 
> Likely there will be some goals which both organisations share, and if
> organisations align, then the combined resources will achieve the goals
> faster.
> 
> 
> On 30/08/2016 7:02 PM, Dirk Frigne wrote:
>> Dear board,
>>
>> as decided on the board meeting, I will work on a partnership between
>> OSGeo and GEO.
>>
>> Here are some points that can be embedded in the MOU (or
>> partneragreement)
>>
>> If you have any suggestions, comments, please let me know, so I can take
>> these with me.
>>
>> (Draft version)
>>
>> 1.    OSGeo promotes collaborative development of open source geospatial
>> software.
>> 2.    GEO Promotes Broad Open Data Policy
>> 3.    GEO through the GEOSS Common infrastructure has access to approx
>> 150 Open data data providers reaching approx 200.000 ml resources.
>> 4.    OSGeo has, as an organisation of individual members, a very strong
>> network for outreach trough our mailing lists, code sprints and FOSS4G
>> conferences.
>> 5.     OSGeo has through her GEO4All channel the possibility to address
>> students and academic researchers with training material and OSGeo
>> software tools.
>> 6.     OSGeo and GEO through their partnership could benefit each other
>> in leveraging the use of the resources for applications using open
>> source software and open data.
>>
>> Dirk
>>
>>
> 

-- 
Yours sincerely,


ir. Dirk Frigne
CEO @geosparc

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@DFrigne
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