[Board] FOSS4G Boston 2017 Financial Wrapup
Michael Terner
mgt at appgeo.com
Sat Dec 23 07:00:26 PST 2017
Jeff:
Thanks for the recognition and your thoughts on the videoing.
Indeed, Guido and I were tremendously impressed with how the Chaos Computer
Club (CCC) handled the video'ing of FOSS4G Bonn 2016. We reached out to
Till and his team to understand the costs they had incurred. After hearing
from Till, we concluded that it would have been cost effective to pay for
travel from Germany and lodging in Boston and have CCC provide similar
video services to us. Guido reached out to CCC and we earnestly pursued
that option. Unfortunately, CCC determined, and conveyed to us in a
professional manner, that they would be unable to provide services to
Boston. So we tried.
Indeed, one of the benefits of having OSGeo involved could be the pursuit
of a reliable and consistent approach and a pool of suppliers, like CCC,
that might be engaged to help. Indeed, we had to learn everything from the
ground up.
Happy holidays to all!
MT
On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 10:02 PM, Jeff McKenna <
jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com> wrote:
> Dear Michael, Ashley, Guido,
>
> Thank you for such an amazing Christmas present to the foundation! The
> whole BLOC should be immensely proud. And such a financial contribution to
> OSGeo, truly the whole community thanks you.
>
> I am also very happy to hear of the creation of your new local OSGeo
> chapter.
>
> Regarding your proposal of OSGeo handling the video records of FOSS4G
> events, I have also been thinking of this; I agree that streaming,
> recording, and fast publishing of talks is now mandatory for events. I
> have spoken to Volker and others about the streaming and sharing of FOSSGIS
> event talks (I have for years now been impressed with the group behind that
> for FOSSGIS). I believe that group (http://c3voc.de/) handles events,
> sometimes for free: even if I am wrong on the cost, I think this is one of
> the possible groups that we could work with for FOSS4G (and get a cost
> quote if need be). Talks for FOSSGIS are often archived and posted minutes
> after each talk.
>
> I agree that OSGeo should now step in and make sure this is handled.
> Especially with the FOSS4G-Boston financial contribution, I hope we can now
> consider to set this up for 2018, 2019 and beyond.
>
> Finally, the spirit of FOSS4G is about giving the spotlight to a community
> and group, planting a seed or just helping things grow; the Boston
> community took the spotlight and showed the whole geospatial world what
> innovation and community really is. Thank you!
>
> Merry Christmas to you and your families Michael, Guido, Ashley, all,
>
> -jeff
>
>
>
> On 2017-12-22 11:51 AM, Michael Terner wrote:
>
>> Earlier this week we wrapped up the finances of FOSS4G Boston and closed
>> our accounts with our fantastic professional conference organizer (Delaney
>> Meeting & Event Management, DMEM). And with Dar es Salaam's call for papers
>> out there, and the selection of Bucharest for 2019 announced, we felt the
>> time was right to share these results, and one important
>> observation/suggestion. Suffice to say it's the holiday "giving season" we
>> are extremely proud and pleased to be able to give back a substantial
>> financial contribution to OSGeo. Here's what has happened:
>>
>> * Earlier this week the OSGeo Treasurer, Michael Smith, confirmed that
>> a sum of *$178,132.29* was deposited from DMEM to OSGeo. This sum
>> represented the following:
>> o 100% repayment of the *$70,000* advance that OSGeo provided the
>> Boston Team.
>> o A surplus payment of *$108,132.29*
>> o In addition, the Boston Team earlier provided OSGeo *$8,241.88*
>> via an earlier cash payment and in-kind services provided in
>> Boston (for a*total surplus of $116,374.17*)
>> * In addition, and as per our original proposal, we have also been
>> able to provide appx. $20,000 to endow a local non-profit -
>> Technocation - to become a local/regional OSGeo chapter. Our
>> Co-Chair, Guido Stein, will direct that non-profit.
>>
>> We wish Mark and Msilikale as well as Vasile similar luck and success
>> this year, and next.
>>
>> Last, the Boston Team would like to make a suggestion for use of some of
>> these funds for the Conference Dev and OSGeo Board to consider. Simply
>> put,*we believe that OSGeo should fund the creation of, and distribution of
>> the video record* (and/or any streaming). The video component of the
>> conference was by far the most complicated and difficult part of our
>> experience; and that is certainly part of our delay in posting the videos
>> /which we are still doing/. Indeed, *this week we posted an addition 30
>> videos for a total of 182* that are now online <
>> http://2017.foss4g.org/post_conference/#slides>. Here is a quick summary
>> of our experience, observations and rationale for this recommendation:
>>
>> 1. Videoing a conference of this magnitude is a significant endeavor.
>> We had 11 rooms running concurrent sessions plus the main plenary
>> hall for keynotes. Over 230 sessions needed to be recorded.
>> 2. Not only do you need to record the videos, but they must be post
>> processed/edited and then posted where they can be accessed. We
>> grossly under-estimated how much time and attention this takes.
>> 3. Given the magnitude of the job, the cost is relatively high. Our
>> quote for having a third party do it was close to $50,000. It could
>> be lower in other locations, but it will still be multiple
>> five-figures of expenditure.
>> 4. Given the cost, and the financial insecurity we had before all
>> registrations and sponsors came in, we chose a lower cost "do it
>> yourself" approach. This involved buying equipment, and running the
>> equipment with volunteers. And it was time consuming and extremely
>> stressful, and it has ultimately resulted in the delays in the
>> post-processing of the videos.
>> 5. If we knew the financial success we were to achieve, there is /no
>> question/ that we would have chosen to spend the $50,000. And I say
>> this as I know - via the 2019 RFP Q&A - that Vasile is considering
>> using our approach, and indeed he is welcome to our equipment, which
>> will be 2 years old by the time Bucharest comes around.
>> 6. But here's the rub from the Chair's and LOC's point of view:
>> * From our vantage, our main job was to create an amazing event,
>> /in Boston,/ for the people and sponsors who could attend (and
>> ultimately paid for the event).
>> * The video'ing task was very important, but very secondary to
>> making the in-person experience great.
>> * We would argue that the video'ing is /more important/ to OSGeo
>> than it was to the BLOC itself. OSGeo wants to create the
>> permanent record; OSGeo wants to broaden the reach to people who
>> couldn't come to Boston. The LOC is more focused on those who
>> /could /come; OSGeo is legitimately more interested in those who
>> could /not /come to Boston.
>> * So, it seems to make sense that OSGeo should /actually pay/ for
>> the videoing (or for some portion of the videoing). Something
>> like a $30,000 grant to the chosen LOC and dedicated to funding
>> videoing would make good sense. This will help relieve stress
>> and to help ensure financial success for the LOC while ensuring
>> there is high quality videoing occurring and the results are
>> posted in a timely fashion.
>>
>> We would strongly urge the consideration of this proposal as we know that
>> Boston's financial contribution to OSGeo helps to make this increasingly
>> feasible.
>>
>> All of us thank you for the opportunity to show what the Boston and OSGeo
>> communities could do together. We will be forever grateful for this
>> experience. Happy holidays to all!
>>
>> Sincerely, MT & the BLOC
>>
>> --
>> Michael Terner
>> /Executive Vice President /
>> Direct: _617-447-2468 _
>> Main: _617-447-2400_
>>
>> www.AppGeo.com <http://www.appgeo.com/>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
> Board mailing list
> Board at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>
--
Michael Terner
*Executive Vice President *
Direct: *617-447-2468 *
Main: *617-447-2400*
www.AppGeo.com <http://www.appgeo.com/>
--
This e-mail message and any attachments may contain confidential or legally
privileged information. If you are not an intended recipient or otherwise
authorized to receive this message, you should not use, copy, distribute,
disclose or take any action based on the information contained in this
e-mail or any attachments. If you have received this message and material
in error, please advise the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete
this message. Thank you on behalf of Applied Geographics, Inc. (AppGeo).
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/attachments/20171223/d84a7edc/attachment.htm>
More information about the Board
mailing list