[Board] Update: MOU with AGU / Open Geosciene Committee

[Jeff McKenna]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for this timely update, I was in fact wondering the progress 
of the AGU relationship earlier this week.

I think it is great that you made contact with Brooks Hanson, and I feel 
that this will get things moving for the AGU.  As you notice the OSGeo 
Board is still working on naming the Executive Board members, but until 
then I believe your plan of having the executive members of OSGeo's Open 
GeoScience Committee drive the initial discussions (and possibly even 
sign the MOU as an OSGeo Officer during the EGU General Assembly in 
Vienna) is a good plan.

I agree that sometimes these relationships rely on these titles (I have 
recorded you as the officer of OSGeo's Open GeoScience Committee at 
http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/board_and_officers.html).

Please keep us posted on the wiki draft of the MOU, we will help draft 
that with you.

Thank you Peter for this update.

-jeff

PS. if you need an extra set of eyes on any email drafts etc to Brooks & 
team during the holiday crunch please let me know.



On 2017-12-07 7:00 AM, "Peter Löwe" wrote:
> Dear Board, (cc: OpengeoScience Committee)
> 
> this is a follow up for the previous mail (see below) concerning a MOU with the American Geoscience Union.
> 
> On Tuesday Dec 5th, I was able to talked to a AGU staff member, Brooks Hanson (AGU Senior Vice President, Publications) (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6230-7145) about the mission OSGeo and the win-win potential of a MOU. AGU is interested to establish a working relation with OSGeo. However, they need more information about us to determine whether from their perspective a MOU is the most effective way to proceed. Since all AGU staff is already occupied with next weeks AGU General Assembly (major event), Brooks has requested more information by e-mail before the holiday season, to continue the dialogue in early 2018 with the option to sign a MOU during the European Geoscience Union (EGU) General Assembly in April in Vienna (https://www.egu2018.eu/).
> 
> If the board agrees, I'll draft a note for AGU within the next days (available for comments by the board in the OSGeo-wiki).
> 
> I also propose that the board goes ahead with the "vice-presidenting" of the chairs of the open geoscience committee (https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Open_Geoscience_Committee), as AGU might have a knack for hierarchies/roles/titles, etc.
> 
> FWIW, the open geoscience committee is discussing its 2018 budet on its mailing list. The current deadline for the commenting phase / draft is Dec 15th.
> 
> 
> best,
> peter
> 
>> Dear Board, (cc: OpengeoScience Committee)
>>
>> I can inform you about an interesting opportunity for OSGeo.
>>
>> AGU (www.agu.org, representing 60.000 geoscientists globally) is currently preparing a project to implement the FAIR-principles (Findable|Accessible|Interoperable|Reusable) for their science >divisions and early career scientists. In this context, I'm attending the projects kickoff-meeting next week.
>>
>> The current focus of AGU is to apply FAIR to all kinds of research data which is used and published.
>> According to the project stakeholders at AGU, they want to create a critical mass of all stakeholders providing input how to advance the implememntaion of FAIR.
>>
>> It can be argued that software, including the OSgeo projects, is also a kind of data. We know from the annual general meetings of AGU and its twin organisation EGU (European Geoscience Union), >that software tools from OSGeo projects are workhorses for science conducted by AGU/EGU members.
>>
>> OSGeo has been reaching out to EGU/AGU already: The Open Geoscience Committee has been organising annual townhall meetings at the EGU gernal assemblies for over four years, OSGeo BOF-meetings >have been organised during earlier AGU general assemblies.
>>
>> While I have not been invited to the upcoming meeting because of being a OSgeo charter member, I believe this is a good opportunity to make our voice heard and put us officially on the map >>>
>   (IMHO FAIR is fully compatible with the OSGeo paradigm) and to argue for a MOU with AGU.
>>
>> Feedback from the board would be appreciated, whether this approach is in the interest of OSGeo. If so, more advice on how to push for / prepare a MOU would be great (-> latest MOU with  DOI )
>>
>>
>> Best,
>> Peter
> __________