[Board] [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo-EU toward a new OSGeo scenario?

Tue May 3 14:35:41 PDT 2016

Dear Maxi et al

Great to continue another part of our strategy-in-the-making! My reasons
why I feel we need a regional EU chapter and its consequences below.

As with many international organisations I am a supporter of the
strategy-adagio ; plan global, act local.

This enables local flavours to an overall vision-mission-strategy-story.
(Even Coca Cola encourages local initiatives under a global brand and
growth strategy.) Which addresses the fact that, for example the GeoServer
project, has many region/country specific implementations and add-ons. Just
think of the specific European INSPIRE directive, with special plugins for
metadata etc.

Furthermore, outreach and lobby (see the Concept Marketing discussion in
the Wiki) have to deal with a host of different cultures and political
entities in Europe. Unlike a relatively homogenous US marketplace. Most
notably we have a influential/powerful centralised EU government in
Brussels as a pan-national stakeholder.

Now, local chapters could be invited to localise our overall strategic
roadmap (I happily take my analogy from software). But they are either not
set up or not equipped to deal with this matter (compare our
similar efforts on .org level). And they are certainly not able to
influence European/Brussels policy from their relative distance.

If a European OSGeo.eu can be the collaborative entity to work towards
further open spatial dissemination, on this side of the Atlantic, then I am
all for this. It could also facilitate FOSS4GEU in stead of having a local
chapter carry the weight.  It is a European itch, so let's scratch it
ourselves.
And if Africa and Asia and Middle-East have other dissemination needs than
power to them.

>From an OSGeo-organisational point of view, we will certainly have to look
into the overall governance. In my opinion we are in a phase in which we
step up our game, professionalise, re-group and re-organise where required.
However, splitting would be disastrous.

A simple solution is that board representation is based on certain roles
and representatives:
Chair, Secretary and Treasurer: General roles, therefor voted by all
chapter members
For marketing, sponsoring (single/grouped) etc; also individuals voted by
all
Representative EU: voted by EU chapter members
Representative Asia: voted by Asian chapter
These last two roles could be combined with other specific roles if needed.

Regional Chapters to be voted on by the local chapters in the area. Or such
like.
Yes, a little more of a Christmas tree, but that can be solved. It reflects
a need for required change.

The overall issue is that we grow in depth, width and length and therefore
we need to revisit/rethink how the organisation is managed for future
growth and relevance.
And managing large internationally distributed organisations is an art, a
craft and a profession. Especially if the organisation consists of
critical, vocal and engaged volunteers.
That can be daunting for those involved, but working in open source
throws us much larger daunting challenges on a daily basis.

My two (Euro)cents

Cheers Marc

Op dinsdag 3 mei 2016 heeft Massimiliano Cannata <
massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch> het volgende geschreven:

> Dear Dirk and all,
> I came across the eu at list.osgeo.org
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','eu at list.osgeo.org');> which I didn't know
> the existence before of your last message. The archive [1] is showing very
> low traffic (2 thread, one of 2015 and one of 2016) with few contributors
> to the discussions (3 people).
> In my opinion times are very immature for creating an OSGeo-EU; it seems
> to me that the discussion just started.
>
> Apart from visions and perspective which could be different, i'm concerned
> about the creation of an European OSGeo chapter and maybe in the next
> future of an Asian one.
> To my point of View, this may be the start of a disruption process which
> could lead to to the creation of  multiple regional foundations.
>
> I have to say that I was already reluctant on the formation of North
> American chapter for the same reason.
>
> This structure is one option, but then I see the "international OSGeo"
> (now OSGeo only) to be totally redesigned in the case.
>
> Probably each continent should then elect one/two representatives for the
> "international OSGeo" and each "continental chapter" will have their
> members and their rules that scale down to "national local chapters" that
> have their own rules and members and elects representatives for the
> continental chapter.
>
> Also each "continental" will have its annual conference and the
> International could happen once every two years.
>
> Said that, I have no recipe and while understanding the motivation behind
> this disruption process I have some fear of splitting communities. This may
> lead in the future to different incubation processes, visions strategies
> etc...
>
> If this is the selected "option" I which that the process of
> de-localization could be run in a more democratic way - doocracy is good
> but when important matters involves several people democracy is far way
> better as it explicitly involve everyone, not only those who " tends to
> favor the more vocal people, leaving the "general opinion" largely unknown."
>
>
> So my question (with no prejudices) is, are we going toward and do we seek
> for a different OSGeo scenario?
>
>
> Maxi
>
>
> [1]
> http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/European-Union-Chapter-f5250537.html
>
>
>
> Sorry if I garbled my understanding of the initial email, I did ask for
> clarification :P
>
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
> On 2 May 2016 at 12:23, Massimiliano Cannata <
> massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch');>> wrote:
>
>> Dear Board Members,
>> while I understand the call for presentation for the OSGeo vision,
>> regarding FOSS4G Europe, i see different visions within the community.
>>
>> One things is the EU local chapter, another is the FOSS4G local event
>> which has a different vision in my understanding and my opinion.
>>
>> What is your opinion?
>>
>> Maxi
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 2016-05-02 17:56 GMT+02:00 Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','jody.garnett at gmail.com');>>:
>>
>>> Thanks Till:
>>>
>>> I see that the presentation covering our mission/vision/goals has been
>>> accepted <http://2016.foss4g.org/talks.html#306> - perhaps that can
>>> take some pressure of keynotes? I would appreciate company if Maxi (who has
>>> been doing so much planning work) was willing.
>>>
>>> To clarify point two - are you considering a european foss4g event? Or a
>>> vision for how OSGeo can be effective in Europe.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jody Garnett
>>>
>>> On 2 May 2016 at 11:19, <till.adams at fossgis.de
>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','till.adams at fossgis.de');>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear OSGeo board,
>>>>
>>>> I come to you in sight of OSGeo presence @FOSS4G 2016 in Bonn. After
>>>> sending out the accteptance-emails for the proposals for the regular track
>>>> we now also care heavily about all the other programme related issues.
>>>>
>>>> One thing we want to finalize ASAP are the plenary talks/sessions we
>>>> will have.
>>>>
>>>> We would be very pleased, if we could have two presentations from OSGeo
>>>> within the limits of our plenary sessions:
>>>>
>>>> 1. Traditionally the OSGeo president should run the Sol Katz Award
>>>> session as well as the student awardings - both together in the closing
>>>> session.  So we would be happy if Venka would agree in adopting that. This
>>>> would be  on friday afternoon, the detailed time schedule will come soon.
>>>>
>>>> 2. In order to have both, a presentation of OSGeo's new "Vision and
>>>> Mission" but also to present the "Vision of an European FOSS4G" I would
>>>> like to ask kindly whether Vice-President Dirk Frigne wants to talk about
>>>> this in a keynote on wednesday noon. I think especially on an european
>>>> FOSS4G with a lot of european organisations being advocated, showing the
>>>> vision of a worldwide, but also of an european FOSS4G makes a lot of sense.
>>>> Dirk as a Vice-President is the perfect person to combine both talks into
>>>> one.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Please also consider organizing the OSGeo booth, for questions just
>>>> contact me.
>>>>
>>>> Till
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *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
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch');>
>>
>> *www.supsi.ch/ist <http://www.supsi.ch/ist>*
>>
>
>

-- 
Kind regards,

Marc Vloemans

Mobile +31(0)651 844262
LinkedIn: http://nl.linkedin.com/in/marcvloemans
Twitter: http://twitter.com/marcvloemans
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